We live in the Bay Area right now, where neither 
of us really is super happy (yeah yeah, call us 
crazy, given all the culture here...).  Where we 
want to end up is in Oregon, but the tech market 
up there is pretty terrible at the moment, worse 
than here.  Even though Mike is getting laid off, 
he's lucky that he's in such a specialized field 
(embedded microsystems) that there's plenty of 
other companies that are looking for people like 
him.  He just has to find the right fit at this 
point.  So things really aren't that bad.  But 
it's still scary...

I've heard there's a lot of work in Texas for 
tech people.  Is that why you're headed there?  
It makes sense on multiple levels too, lower cost 
of living, higher abundance of mutton chops... 
~_^  Austin is supposed to be a really nice city, 
a liberal haven in the land of Republicans, as I 
understand it (this information coming from a 
democrat of course, so I'm sure it's somewhat 
biased).  But I've only been to Dallas.  Nice 
enough, but the heat can make you go insane.  
Bleh.

Good luck finding a place!  ^_^