It's Not A Bender, It's A Lifestyle.

The countdown is on in earnest for trip #1 of 2017. One month from today I will be back in the happy zone (actually 28 days since Feb is a short month yay!). The money will be in a good place, I am aiming to have $4500, $1K per day plus $500 for the fly-in night. Saving's already begun with $700 in the bank and I will be getting my nearly $2K tax refund in the next day or two, so I really only need to put together another $1800 in the next three checks, one Friday, one on the 20th and then I will be getting paid while I'm in town too, so should be no worries. Not  super  excited to be staying at Paris, the casino itself has never really impressed me and frankly it seems a little run down (like many CET resorts) but since the (free) room is a recently remodeled Burgundy that part of it at least should be fine. Probably won't end up spending much time aside from sleep in the resort but we'll see. And did I mention the room is free? I've been so wrapped up in ...

Well the big "I just bought a new used car and need to get it checked out" maintenance is done and it dinged me to the tune of $2900. -Leaking power steering pressure hose replaced -Both front CV boots replaced -Leaking transmission fixed and sealed -Hood strut replaced -Major interval service done (basically every fluid and filter on car replaced or drained and refilled) -New remote key programmed and cut Went to Advanced Autowerks in SF, they have very strong Yelp rating, specialize in Audi and use all original parts. They said despite all that needed to be done, it looked like the car had been pretty well taken care of, what they thought is that the car had been sitting for a while more or less undriven. Belts, brakes, tires all in good shape and aside from fluids no big engine work needed. I expected the hit. That's why I'm cut down to three Vegas trips this year, I knew this was coming and it's the price of ownership for buying a German car. I c...

We're booked for trip #2 of 2017. Will be at Bally's in a Jubilee room in the first week of August. So that completes the bookings for the year. It'll be a 3 trip year instead of the usual 4, allowing me to get back and stay on top of finances due to the buying of the car. Been hammering my CC a bit with car expenses, so the 5 month gap between trips will allow me to get it back down to where it should be. I'll absorb the CC hit for now, do the March trip as planned and then pump down the CC debt afterwards. I'm trying hard to remember - I'm not sure I've ever stepped foot in Bally's. The Jubilee rooms were renovated last year though so at least that part of things should be solid. They look modern and nice enough in pics, and they had the added benefit of being free, minus resort fees, of course. Total overhead on this one may be my lowest ever, I was able to use 100% Jetblue points to book the flight, so total overhead will be around $175. Bally...