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MARCHing Toward Vegas.

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A month and change to yet another Vegas. Things taking shape. The dates are locked in after having to rebook, and MGM Grand is the resort. Looking forward to it. Newly remodeled room with what should be a decent, north-facing strip view. Not a huge birthday suite like the Conrad a couple years ago, but it's fine, with wanting to keep expenses under control this time. I like the Grand and the location is fine for my purposes. I found out WWE is going on in town at T-Mobile that week, which is balls, but I'll just avoid it by heading north. No change on the flight rate sitch (too high), so it looks like I will be doing my first road trip since 2021. 1st time letting the WRX stretch its legs, and as long as my back doesn't bark too much in the cockpit it should be a good time. Plan to leave early in the morning and get there by check-in time, then should be able to head straight up to the room, maybe take a couple hour nap then gogogo for 4 and a half days. Money...money will ...
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MGM'ing at MGM.

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Final room booking booked.  I had a NYNY standard room booked for around $100 for my birthday week, but my March offer dropped with added Freeplay. Cancelled the NYNY booking, but rates went WAY up for that week, so now I'm going the week before my birthday and for double the room rate. FML. Not all bad though. I'll be in the newly renovated MGM Grand strip view room, so an upgrade from what I had booked. $85/$100 FP/RC. I still plan to drive in, so no disruption of travel plans. Just need to reset my FTO time which will be no issue. This also avoids a couple big conventions and the NFL draft which would have busied up the strip the following week, so it's cool. Should be a fun trip, starting to get a little jazzed for it. 
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MGMsights.

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Got a "wrapped" type email from MGM Rewards detailing my points activity from last year. Pretty insightful stuff. In short, I'm not earning shit for points on gambling anymore. I earned 84K points and change last year. 75K is required for retaining Gold year to year, so unlike past years where I scraped by, this year I cleared it comfortably. A strong spend/play December trip made it a laugher. For the year, fully 62K points came from the points earning on the MGM Rewards Iconic card. Most of that is just daily non-Vegas spend: food, bars, deodorant, etc. I gained only 17k points all year from gambling. That amazes me. 95% of that on VP. I fed $53K into MGM VP machines last year and only got 17K measly tier points out of it? Another 3800 points came from onsite resort spend, and that's it, that's the whole 84K. Only a little over 20K points were actually earned in a Vegas resort, which is where you're supposed to earn most of your points. I play VP in Vegas...
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Too Much.

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  I spend too damn much money in normal life. It's affecting the Vegas save. I have no daily save discipline unless it's my 401k or if I'm JUST about to go on a trip. I can be a little disciplined right before a trip to put away a few extra hundy, but I need to extend that to the rest of my daily life.  The car is part of it. I spend $325/month on the lease payment, $150 on insurance, probably another $140 on gas. No more bridge tolls anymore, which helps, but that's $615 right off the top. My rent is still low...it's food and Saturdays that kill me. I routinely spend $40 a day on food, which is insane, and can easily spend $300 on a normal Saturday out in the City, x 4 times a month. The car is what it is. I need it for work and that's not going to change in the near future. The Saturdays...that's not going to change either. I NEED the release after a long work week, and I love it. What I CAN control is the daily food budget. In short, I must have a daily ...
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Next, And Help.

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  Getting a grand back from taxes this year. Made more money and went up in tax % but somehow a better refund than last year. Meh. That'll certainly help for Birthday Vegas, which, inevitably, for good or ill, is coming. It'll be a shorty, just flying on the Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, flying out on the following Monday. Max 5 full days on the ground. So if I can only put $4K together by then, that's fine. With the tax refund that gives me 6 checks to stack as much paper as possible by fly out. Currently have a soft rezzie for NYNY on that date which would cost me about $30 with 4 comped nights and no resort fee, but we'll see what the offers look like after February breaks. The NYNY package has $150 of RC/FP value which is less for my current offers, so I might just stick with it. Also have a $100 RC bump from retaining Gold, so at least a couple good meals to be subsidized. I do tend to go a little more baller on rooms for birthdays though, so we'll see. D...
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Post Mortem, Xmas 2025, and Math

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Yeah, OK. That was by far not the best trip ever, but also not the worst. Highlights: Flights:  OK on the in, a little late to be flying in really, kinda wasted the day to not even be in the airport until like 8:30p. The flight left on time though and I got there with no issues. On the out, on the day after Xmas, there was a 1 hour delay due to weather in SF. Not much to do or say, just sat there at the gate and dealt with it. Resorts: Love love loved Fontainebleau. Beautiful room. Oblique strip view, everything new and clean and beautiful. Hoping to continue to get offers from there to stay, even if it's only a couple nights. Especially based on the MGM sitch detailed below. Mandalay Bay for the other 4 nights was...fine. Gotta say, MB is one of my fave resorts but it's time for a refresh. A lot of dinks and dents in furniture, stains, nothing is automated in the room, etc. It's just showing its age. It still works but it's not up at Aria or Bellagio standards anymore ...
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What A Lovely Evening.

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It don't git much better'n this. My long, depressing nightmare of a job is over. Staying with the same company but moving to a new site with just a plethora of better attached to it. Just cancelled my Fastrack, for one thing. Fuck that bridge and everyone on it. The relief hasn't really set in but it will, and it may lift a low level depression I've had for the last year. Here's hoping. I also, as of a couple hours ago, have the next 12 days off from work. Don't have to really go back until 1/5. 7 of those days will be either traveling to or being in Vegas, so maybe not the most relaxing stretch, but I'm not complaining. It's been a rough stretch from August to here with not much time off, so I plan to enjoy the living fuck out of it. I earned it. Then, oh yeah, Vegas tomorrow. All the money is out of the bank, I'm already checked into Monday's room and I'm 80% packed and ready. The save worked out perfectly, I'm not fucking myself with a...
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