Thanks guys!
My options are some what limited now. I live in South Dakota for f***s sake! We're working on fixing that but it'll be a few years. The wife went back to school and we have a baby coming in November. So we need to get both of those things done before much of anything else gets done. Once that is all set, we'll go where the jobs are and (hopefully) where the weather doesn't suck!
As for what is available in this area. The economy didn't crash nearly as hard here as elsewhere. And there are a quite a few companies hiring. I got in with a very big company (Fortune 500) with excellent benefits and I should by all rights, be happy. But I'm not, it was advertised as a software support position, it involved travel (on the companies dime) to and from a large list of clients to install/upgrade new software. Turns out that while that does happen, its about once every 4 months. The rest of the time I'm a phone monkey. I don't want to do that again. I hate CSR work. So that's why I'm looking for a real IT job again.
The contracting game is a little iffy to me. I'll say the name the of the company that has hired these vultures. Citi. Apparently they've hired at least 3 east coast companies to fill a few positions. The one I've been contacted about is really really basic windows admin stuff. Working in AD and doing some SQL. First company, called and offered me 18/hr and I said no. I make almost 20/hr now with full benefits. The second company called me, told me what it was and I just asked them straight out if this was the same position with Citi. They said yes, I told them they'll have to do way better than the 18 the last company offered. These guys offered me 21.25/hr. So yes, better. But no benefits. It's been a long long time since I've have no benefits. Even if I can get on the wife's health plan, I still loose the 401k and such.
So that's the story. I want a real IT job, and I want to get paid what I'm worth. But I don't want to give up too much (if anything) to do that.
Oh and one other thing ... Why are all of these companies staffed by people who sound just like Apu from the Simpsons? Not to sound racist or anything, I'm just saying that it's hard for me to take a job if I can't understand the details of the contract I might be signing.