2 Month Warning.

T-minus ~60 days to the August Vegas hotstravaganza.

Have started the painful saving regimen...I'm on the first of 7 of 8 weekends with no going out in the City (squeezing one in there in the middle) while saving up Vegas cash. Ouch. Part of it though is I have both a HSF and a DMV payment to make in the next couple months, so whatever. It'll be down to the penny on the final save, but $3550 will be the savings goal for this one. That's $50 for a beer at SFO on the out night and cab fare to the resort, $300 for the short first night (no gambling just drinking), then $800 per day for the 4 full days I'm there. With the level of gambling I do anymore (minimal), it'll be more than enough.

I just don't have the stomach for gambling anymore that I did when I first started going, though that's probably more due to the fact that the slots are far tighter now than they were then. In 2013 I put almost $20K into the slots over the course of the year, and only lost about $2200. This past couple years I don't have consolidated info for, but I would bet my coin in last year was probably closer to $5K, maybe even less, and probably lost $4K of it. It's just not fun anymore. A $100 bill goes in and it's gone 10 minutes later, no matter what resort I play.

The lack of gambling doesn't bother me, there's so much to do, eat, and drink in town that I don't really even WANT to be sitting in a smoky casino staring at losing reels anymore. It does, however, cut down on the comps I am offered. As previously mentioned here, I have basically no comp status anywhere for next year, unless I hit a run of luck somewhere. The "having to pay for rooms" thing will likely cut my trips down to 3 next year (though I did say that this year too).

ANYWAY, I'm hearing good things about the Jubilee rooms at Bally's that I have booked. It's a strip view room so we'll see if we can keep up the string of great views I've had going lately (Flamingo excluded). Bally's is slightly up-strip of where I'd ideally like to be location-wise, but apparently there's a walkway to get through Bally's into Paris so at least I won't have to be out in the heat getting there. I still don't think I've ever set foot in Bally's.

I've made one reservation for the time I'm in town, but aside from that I don't think I'll be planning anything. Will be going back to Gallagher's at NYNY this time. Miss that place, such great filets. Worth the trek down-strip and will probably do after a pilgrimage to Skyfall.

Monday, at exactly the 60-day point, I begin a diet. I'm chubbing up massively since I don't walk to work anymore. Got to get it under control. Still very happy to have the car, for other reasons, but it has affected my health which I thought it might. Have a Dr's appointment Monday and will probably be wrung over the coals for the weight gain. I'm feeling basically OK aside from that.

So there you go. I'll probably be checking in more frequently now as we count down, I think it'll go pretty quickly, plenty to keep me busy even though there'll be no weekend partying here.

2 months to Happyland.