but it is a decent place by LA standards

My experience is that traffic and parking are nasty there. Move as near as possible to work to avoid jams. I did a contract at UCLA a while back. Didn't pay well, but I got to look at college chicks all day (didn't touch any, I swear).

My S. Calif. search has been pretty crappy. My current contract is in the Bay Area of all places. They appear not to like locals because they expect too much $ to handle the high cost of living. IOW, they bring in distant, naive suckers.

But anyhow, Congrats, and semi-colons still suck :-)