I've lived in California since November, 1997.  I lived in Napa for a few months, then moved down to the Peninsula when I got a job at Incyte Genomics. Gary and I bought a house in Fremont (aka Little Kabul) in October, 2000.

Lost?  Wondering where Fremont is?  Check out this map of the area, courtesy of Yahoo.

Current weather

Useful Bay Area links:

SF Bay Area Yahoo
BayArea.com
Current traffic conditions (I take the Dumbarton to work)
Current earthquake conditions
Current energy conditions (click on System Conditions for today's graph)
News about California's energy deregulation and reregulation (this site was much more interesting in winter and spring 2001)
State of California Parks web page: links to all state parks, beaches, and recreational areas. This also has a link to ReserveAmerica, an online reservation service for campgrounds across the country.
I'd like to have a working link to the National Park Service's Yosemite web site, but the NPS has shut down all their web pages. However, you can make reservations to stay at Yosemite (in a hotel or tent cabin, not camping) here.
Information about plants native to California and the California Native Plant Society
Monterey Bay Aquarium--one of the coolest aquariums in the country
The bay area has many neat science museums. The Tech (SJ) and the Exploratorium (SF) are two that we like a lot.
craigslist for the San Francisco Bay Area and the East Bay has classifieds for everything from pets to personals
The Freight and Salvage Coffeehouse in Berkeley has live music 6 days a week (mostly folk music)
Movies and show times in the Bay Area
Public transportation and other ways of getting around the Bay Area
California voter information (preview of upcoming elections, reminders of past promises, etc.) at CalVoter.org
What San Francisco is famous for: Sourdough Bread
Our favorite Thai restaurant: East Bay Thai