Soooo, it looks like I may be staying with my current gig.

I spoke with my current employer, who immediately offered to match the salary of the new position, but I told him that I would need more and wasn't interested in negotiating. He asked what it would take, and I told him that it would take a significant raise, a few grand cash in my pocket right now, and a plan to get me to a much higher salary in 3 years. He told me that he had to think about it for a few hours, and then summoned me to his office 15 minutes later with a very enthusiastic "yes", and with the usual spiel: he sees me being a central and core part of the team, and not to disclose this to other associates for fairness, and the like.

Wow.

Well, I do like my job and quality of life, it was mainly the money that I was chasing down with new employment. There are some bad sides to not accepting the new position and as such I haven't entirely made up my mind, but I'm fairly certain that I'm going to stay.

Woohoo!