Incidentally, I just noticed that Ray's area code, 94526, puts Achewood in the East Bay, basically in Danville. I always assumed it was more or less coterminous with San Carlos, where the Onstads live, (http://chrisonstad.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_chrisonstad_archive.html) which is on the peninsula, probably about 30 mins away.
The Acheverse is based in North Cali ... according to
Google Maps, Dexter University = Stanford, and Seven Pines Golf Course = Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course. Ray lives on Claremont Way in Menlo Park (zip code 94025, not 94526), the Onstads and their housemates (in the strip, anyway) live on Coleridge Ave. in Palo Alto, Pat lives near Rhodes and Channing, and the apartments of Molly/Spongebath/Emeril/Vlad/etc. are near Gilbert and Laurel. Beef's old trailer looks like it may have either a) been the victim of urban renewal, b) a map error, or c) artistic license, since it looks like the map points to a location that's primarily smaller single-family houses. However, there *is* a small trailer park immediately to the south, so I'm going with 'b'. Likewise, I don't notice any apartments in the area of where Molly and co. live, but I'm thinking they might reside in a once-single-family house that was converted into a few smaller studios, or something similar.
Man, I feel like I should've been enjoying a smoked turkey leg while I did that.