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

Whelp, by this time tomorrow I will be at the airport 3 beers in watching the Niners and getting ready to fuck off to Vegas. Already checked into the room, a really cool thing at RW, they allow you to select your room - I got the 2nd from the top floor and was able to get a corner room so only one potential noisy neighbor. Should be a pretty spectacular strip view up that high. Have never been able to do that with any other resort, that early and that specific on the room. May be a factor to keep me coming back. The flight, should it be on time (fingers and toes crossed) ought be a breeze. I'm in the 3rd row and have priority boarding, so there shouldn't be any fuckery with the bag. I think the key to flying a crap airline like Allegiant is just to knuckle under and pay for all the "conveniences" then hope beyond hope that they'll be on time. I will gladly trade dollars for ease and convenience. As it is, even if all goes perfectly I won't be in to town before...

T-minus 4 days to the Vegas. Wrapping up one last not quite full week then out the door for 5 full days of Xmas vacation. Giving myself the option of maybe staying one more day, I don't have to be back at work until the 3rd so I could stay for the 29th and fly home on the 30th, but don't want to push it any further than that since then I would be bumping up against the NYE fuckery. I'll bring enough clothes and medicine to do the extra day, would just have to blow off the flight home and book a flight and room for Thursday. If I'm in good enough financial and physical shape I may do it, otherwise will just stick to the original plan. Getting to OAK for the flight out will be easy, no time pressure since it's such a late flight so I will just leave work about an hour early, come home, shower, then head to BART for the airport. There's a Niner game and a Dubs game that night so I can just post up in the airport bar and watch those to pass the time to the flight. ...

T-minus 1 week to the last Vegas of 2021. The last of six trips. What a year it's been. Job change, hefty pay raise in the doing, getting completely out of debt, meeting and marrying my beautiful model wife. OK maybe not that last part. But it was a positive one. The job is going great. I feel like I'm a valued member of the team, I trained or hired two good team members, the ops team is a tight running ship that is probably the fittest part of the whole company right now. All the seemingly menial skills I picked up in all those crap warehouse and inventory jobs have finally paid off and have me in great position with a company that could be a rocket ship. The downside: doesn't look like I'm getting any kind of bonus this year. Would have been helpful with how low the savings is now, but... The finances are OK, I've Vegas'ed most of the nest egg I had when I left TFS but I plan to take a few months off of the Vegas train in early '22 to build it back up. A r...

Not much going on this time, aside from the rooms, but here we GO. -6 nights at the Conrad in a Strip View room - $897 all in, would be $1433 booking direct. Saves $536 -$77 in Express Comps for use at MGM joints. Value $77. -Flight in on Allegiant, round trip cost me $100 with travel vouchers, would be $310 without, saves $210. All in all a saving of $823 over what I would have paid as a Vegas normie. Probably one of the smaller savings packages for me ever but I'm going out with a bang room-wise. Anyway that's $800 more doll hairs to throw away in slot machines! Or whores. But probably slot machines. 10 days to Paradise.  

Already inside of 3 weeks to the Vegas, again. Not going to break down a day by day plan post this time as I have almost nothing "planned", and ain't nobody got time for that anyway. Some generalities... Fly-in night will be a short one. Even if all goes according to plan on Xmas eve eve, (highly unlikely with Allegiant), I won't be on the ground until 11:30p. It'll be a stay-in evening, probably just down to the RW resort floor for a couple hundy of VP and some drinks, and maybe a snack before bed. The sole goal for the night is to get in, get unpacked at Conrad and get situated for the 5 full days coming. For the rest of the trip it's just me doing me, Vegas-style. Drankin', foodin', skirt-chasin'. I do have one reservation at on Xmas night, Kasa Nori at RW. Should be an easy do since it's on-resort, then I can maybe do one other splurge-ish meal at an MGM spot that can soak up the Resort Credits. Still have about $75 left in them.  Outside o...

A week back from Turkey Vegas. Highlights: Flights: United. Flight in fine and ahead of time, no issues. Flight back I had to check my bag which added the better part of an hour to the fly out day. Was pretty tough getting up early on that fly out morning too, 10a is really too early for an out flight. Earbuds performed well on the trip and were easier to use than the JBL's. Room: Mandalay Bay standard room was fine. Had yet another in-room safe snafu that wasted some of my time the first morning but other than that no issues. Room was clean and well-maintained and housekeeping was on point. Had a high floor and view of Allegiant. Resort: Figured it was going to be pretty mellow at MB for the holiday but it was actually pretty busy Thursday to Saturday. Couldn't even get into Mlife line to load Freeplay until Sunday the line was so damn long every day. They've gotten rid of the desks and moved everything to the cage. Spent quite a bit of time, especially at night winding do...

Last couple days left before the Turkey Vegas trip. Pretty much ready to go. The money's pulled out of the bank, the carry-on is 80% packed, the laundry's done, just need to sleepwalk through another day and a half of work then head to the airport Tuesday afternoon. The weather looks like it's going to cooperate, mid 60's to low 70's days and chilly but manageable nights. Going to leave the jacket home and just take my golf pullovers. May be a bit chilly late into the nights but I should have a beer blanket on by then so no worries. Got my new Pixel Buds in time for the trip, they don't sound as good as the JBL's but they're a lot easier to lug around so they will come with me. They pair with the iPad so no worries there. Those along with the new 6 Pro and I'm well kitted out for the trip. Did a decent Vegas playlist, nothing themed just a bunch of good instrumental songs.  Looking forward to Mandalay Bay, should be a nice relaxed holiday vibe. It...

Changed up the room sitch for Xmas. Bigly. I had Delano booked for 5 nights, and Cosmo for one. This would have been nice. It would have been safe. It would have been relatively inexpensive. A week before I go, I just chucked all that out the window. I'm going to change this whole mess up and stay all 6 nights at the new Resorts World, in a Conrad Strip View room. I found a great rate on Priceline on a Express deal, less than $100 a night for what would be $160+ to book direct. It's the middle of the 3 luxury levels on the site, but the strip view will be a nice upgrade and the room itself looks very posh. Reasons? Fuck you and your logic, that's why. It's been a hell of a year and I've upgraded my work position and paygrade substantially...I could have played it safe and cheap by staying with MGM but honestly outside of the room rates they really aren't doing much for me and I wanted to switch it up and try something new.  I was just down at the MB complex for ...

Decided that on the upcoming Turkey trip I'm going to live Tweet the whole bloody thing. I sometimes post to my Google Keep to keep track of what's going on during a trip, since the various chemicals involved in a typical Vegas trip make me forget large chunks of it. This doesn't allow me to post pics, though, and I figure since I have the new Pixel with the fancy camera I might as well put it to use and basically live tweet the trip. Since I have all of zero (0) followers on Twitter (by choice, I block all who follow me), this will in essence be a tweet diary for myself, but that's fine. That way I can hopefully get a few more quality pics of my misadventures and put the 6 Pro through its paces. I often bemoan the fact that I really don't record my comings and goings (and comings) on trips very well, or I take pics of the same damn things every trip. I plan on getting around on the strip on this trip, from MB to Resorts World, so this will be a public record of my ...

Getting into countdown mode for Thanksgiving Vegas. A week and change out, and things are starting to ramp up. Last paycheck before the trip will drop in tonight, will have $5400 to spend. Will have a mostly full normal daily spend for the 5 days and about $600 for the first short night ( UPDATE: Sold my old Pixel 4XL so another $250 added to the kitty). Still leaves me $5K in the bank, or rather in the Xmas trip bank. The bag is down and I'm starting to get things organized, it'll be the carry-on and my little under seat bag. Weather looks to be as good as can be during the winter months in Vegas, should be high 60's day and high 40's night, with no chance of rain. Probably won't even need to pack a jacket if that pans out. Still have just the two dinner reservations at Stripsteak and Superfrico, may not even do the 2nd one but leaving it on the docket in case I'm craving a second splurge meal. The Stripsteak rezzy on Turkey night will be gratis through Ex Com...

Finally booked the air for the Xmas trip. Had to fly out to OAK for the flight, but managed to find a round tripper on Allegiant for less than $200 for that week. SFO was hovering around $400 so peace to that and I'll do the BART to save a couple hundy. Had some flight credit on Allegiant too, so only a $105 hit to the wallet. The flight times are less than ideal, as I'm not wheels down in Vegas on the in until 11:30p, and the out flight is late in the day for me, but for a couple reasons, it's OK. First, after the Turkey trip will be draining the bank account a bit, it's not a horrible thing to get in a little later and save some dosh on that first night. I also won't have to rush out of work that day, can lollygag around until normal go home time then roll over to OAK. On the return, 7pm flight, but I have the rest of that week off so a later flight is fine - I can probably hook up with late check out and be in the room until 3p, then maybe get some lunch somewher...

Counting down fo' real to Turkey Vegas. Looking good financially. Got my $600 stimmy from Gavin a couple days ago, so adding that to what I have left in the (shrinking) bank account, I'll have over $11K in there when go time comes. Assuming I pull out $5K and change that would still leave me with $6K in after the trip, plus any pennies I bring back. That works out to $900 for each of the full 5 days and something like $700 for the first short night. More than enough. Even if all goes perfectly I won't be out to the strip until after the 7p hour that first night, so I'll have some bleed-over to the next day. So the money is donezo. I got the Pixel 6 Pro this week. I was due for an upgrade and after flirting with an iPhone (too damn expensive for monthly bill) I went with the latest Pixel. I get to stay on inexpensive Fi and now have one of the better phones on the market with 5G and all the bells and whistles. It'll be nice to take the new toy to Vegas and get to put...

Just a few weeks now until the Turkey trip. Time to tally up the savings on this one. -6 nights at Mandalay Bay - $387, would be $847 with no Mlife status, savings of $460. -$130 in Mlife Ex Comps. -$50 in RC and $50 in FP at Mandalay Bay - $100 value. -2 Restaurant.com certs for $25 at MB eateries, $50 value. And...that's it. Not much to speak of this trip. though the rooms are a solid discount. Total of $740 saved if I end up using everything. Not the best haul ever by any means but respectable. With the flight, total trip overhead still just a little over $600 all in for 6 nights, not bad. I'll end up getting a couple free meals out of the Ex Comps and RC, including the splurge Turkey night meal at Stripsteak, and if I use the R.com certs for Hussong's and Slice I won't end up spending too much money on food. 3 weeks and counting...

Closing in on trip #5 of the year. Less than a month now. No changes to the itinerary. Mandalay for the room at a great rate (less than $400 all in for 6 nights) and United for the flights. All told overhead less than $700, which isn't an all time great but for a holiday weekend trip it's not bad. Even with paying down the Mlife CC should have $9K in the bank pre-trip, so something like $4K left in when I'm back, and hopefully a little more if I don't shit the bed on gambling. Not going to plan much on the trip, have a couple dinner reservations, one for Turkey night at Stripsteak in the MB complex and one at a new place at Cosmo that looks good. The dinner at Cosmo is right next to Opium theater, so I may see that again last minute if it feels right that night. Other than that the trip is open. I'm sure I will be making the V/P runs many times to see the guys in the Collective, and I should have plenty of time to hit many of the other normal haunts. Last year the t...

Will have some gambling freedom come the last two trips of the year. I've locked in Mlife Gold for next year, and have zero chance of getting to Platinum, so I can spread the gaming spend around a bit if I choose to for Turkey and Xmas. I do get Ex Comps built up when I gamble at Mlife resorts, so the bulk of the play will probably still be there, but I don't need to be rigid about it like I was earlier in the year.  Identity would be the logical choice, but it's been announced that Cosmo's resort operations will be run by MGM starting early next year, so there's really no point in trying to pick up any more points there. I imagine it'll just revert to Mlife once that happens. I can't sniff any comped nights there anyway unless I spend a ton in Nov and Dec and if I did they might go away after the acquisition.  Wynn Rewards is something I'd like to get deeper into but I just don't make it up there enough to make it worth the effort. I also have zilch...

I'm spending too damn much money. Since I came back from the quickie September trip I haven't really saved a dime more than what was in the bank when it was over. Still sitting on $7K in there but the plan after Sept was to build up the cushion again to be in a great place for the nearly back-to-back Turkey and Xmas trips. They are both 6-night trips, meaning at least $5K needed on both trips, and, well, you can do the math. I have just 3 checks between now and lift off for Turkey, so I need to put the brakes on the spending. No more watches. No more buying of party favors. No more spur of the moment Tame Impala shows. No more fucking GrubHub every night to the tune of $25. I've got to tighten up. The LAST thing I want to do is to have to go back to the days of enforced save amounts every check. That means weeks with no Saturday going out, it means living on canned soup for days on end, it means...going back to 2016 pre-Vegas trip me. A sparse time. It's something I can...

I'm trying to start living again. For most of my adult life I've been pretty insular. I don't do much, unless it's part of the routine, or unless I'm in Vegas (or have no choice due to quarantine). During the week, I go to work, then go home, rinse, repeat. On weekends I go out to mostly the same places on Saturday, then hibernate on Sunday. In the past I've called it "the rut". It's safe, and fine, and boring. I don't HATE it, it's just not really living. I'm going to make a concerted effort to get out in the world. In the last few weeks I've gotten out of the comfort zone and have gone to a Tame Impala show at Chase Center (great), a Friday Cocteau Fest event at Cat Club and a Tuesday Giants game. In the past I would have made excuses in my head that these things are too expensive or too crowded or too, whatever. I'm done making those excuses. I'm going to start taking advantage of what the City offers on a weekly basis. I...

2 months from Turkey Vegas. After not much hype for the last couple trips, for this one I am pining. Great resort, 6 nights, should have plenty of dosh and it'll be a solid 3 month gap between trips so I can properly hype up. I've settled into the job now and am no longer sort of engulfed by it, it's still hectic but I have carved out a niche and some boundaries which is good. My mind can wander to more important things now, like Vegas. I'll be a bit of a free agent on the trip too. I have Mlife Gold locked up for next year and have none chance to get to Platinum...ever, so I can play the field a bit more this trip. Being that I'm staying at MB I'll likely still do most coin-in there and at other MGM spots but I can try to lean into Grazie a bit and maybe see if I can snag some rooms for next year there. I've more or less given up on Cosmo, just too damn expensive for low roller like me. Wynncore also probably out of my league. No interest in CET, so that ju...

Back a week now from the Labor Day trip. Highlights (and lowlights) below. Flights: Frontier. In was great, got to airport in plenty of time, had a couple beers with a drinking buddy from R bar, then flight on time and no issues. Actually got in 20 mins early or so. Flight out was a bit of a shit show. Got loaded onto the plane on time fine, but then sat around on tarmac for an hour with various issues then had to de-plane and go to another gate to board a different plane. Altogether a couple hours late getting in, making it a really long and depressing fly out day. Had a weird pseudo-panic attack on the tarmac coming back too, for a few seconds felt claustrophobic and panicky. Was in the window seat on a full plane, dunno what it was about. It passed in about 15 seconds and I was OK the rest of the way but may need to not sit on the window anymore. Room: This was the true, real downer of the trip. The Mirage standard rooms are ghastly now. Completely run down, beat up, and awful. Was ...

Checked into room. Checked into flight. This is happening tomorrow. In 24 hours I'll be in the air to the Vegas town. Trip 4 of 2021 nearly underway, and I'm RTG. The money's out, the bag is 80% packed, just need to shave, sleep, get up, pack and half ass it through a day of work before Uber'ing to the airport. Should the flight be on time, I'll be on the ground a little after 10p and with any luck into my room and out to the strip by 11p. Ready to do this one. I'm done second guessing it, it's a more or less full trip and I'm going to maximize it. I can afford it and I'm still in my element in that town no matter the circumstances. I have enough local knowledge to make it work and it'll be fine. Plenty to do, plenty to see and I'm up for some Vegas. See ya in 4 days.

The Trip That Probably Shouldn't Have Been is days away. Going to stop nay-saying it. I booked it, it's happening, and most of what could go wrong is either nothing I can control, or ironically completely under my control. I can't control the flights and the airports. All I can do is get to the airports early and try to be patient with the inevitable holiday weekend crowds. Both SFO and McCarran seem to be pretty adept at pushing a huge mass of humanity through the gates, then it's just knock on wood that Frontier doesn't bungle the flights. I can't control the crowds on strip. They will be there en masse, they will be stupid, and they will be slow. I can't control the taxi lines or the full bars and restaurants. I can't control that it's going to be 100 degrees plus all three days I'm there. What I can control is my attitude and reaction to the above. I can be patient. I can be prepared. I can strategize the most painless path around roadblocks...

Off to the Vegasosity in a few days. Rounding up the discounts, as is my wont. -4 nights at Mirage: 3 nights comped, all-in cost with late check out $416. Would be $1023 if I was a horrid, unwashed compless nobody. Saving of $607. -$76 Express Comps, which will increase somewhat during trip with play, call it $85. $50 Freeplay and $50 Resort Credit from booking package, total resort credit $185. And that's all, folks. Total savings $792. Outside of the nice room rate, it'll work out to the free splurge meal at Costa Sunday and maybe a lunch somewhere at Mirage with the Ex Comps and resort credit, and a little bit of free VP during the stay. Not a record haul by any means but for a last minute, impromptu trip it doesn't suck. I have a couple of the $25 R.com certs for Mandalay but I doubt I'll even get down there this trip so not worth mentioning. So, once more unto the breach. I would call you dear friends but I don't know you and no one reads this anyway.

A quick little trip to The Vegas in a week. It may be ill-advised, but I'm going to be in Vegas as opposed to not, so it can't be all bad. Not doing a normal day by day run through this time, as it's a shorty and I have no real plan. Just some bullet points... Relax. Its going to be packed on strip. It's going to be weird to be back to masks. The airport is going to be a challenge, probably both ways. Take a breath and go with it. This is always my toughest advice to follow for myself because I have the patience of an incontinent gnat but it HAS to be the way I roll this trip, or I will have no fun at all. People will be fucktards. Just deal with it. Strip strategically. Avoid pinch points and lines and busy times. Taxi everywhere that you can, and if that fails stay local. There's plenty to do on the north strip if the taxi line is 20 people deep. Roll with the punches. Absolutely NO strip walking at peak times. Be planted somewhere by 9p every night, and stick ...

Literally what is wrong with me.  I booked a 4 night stay over LDW for next week. I kept telling myself since coming back from the July trip...NO, be responsible, save your money, it's too much for the flight, you don't like going over holiday weekends in the summer... Fuck. Booked the Mirage for 4 nights. 3 of them comped, all in with fees and late check out still just over $400. Really good rate for a holiday weekend and the only reason I'm going, really. Every other rooms outlet but Mlife is astronomical. Could have done NYNY, MGM or Luxor for about the same money, but of those the location up north of Mirage is the best bet for that weekend. Flights are not the best in terms of airline or times, but booking this late it was the best I could do. Frontier in and out, in late Thursday night and out at 4:45p on Monday, which is liable to be a circus at the airport on Labor Day, but I'll just get the airport super early and take my chances. At least it gives me 3 full da...

3+ months til the next Vegas trip. Seems prudent right now. The virus is charging back and despite being vaxxed it seems reasonable to take a few months off to hopefully let things cool off again. Nevada has the mask mandate back in effect indoors again, anyway. No capacity or vax card restrictions yet but it's not out of the realm of possibility. I'm not really worried for my own safety, but a restricted Vegas in any way is less Vegas. And I sure as shit don't want to play the "don't know if I can go" game again like last year. It's fine. It allows me re-build the nice cash cushion I had coming out of the last job before taking 2 Vegas trips, and lets me re-build the hype for Vegas that has waned a bit in the (not all good crazy) crazy 3 trips thus far this year. Vegas should be a celebration, not a routine, and it was beginning to feel like that by the end of the last trip. I could afford a quick 4-night trip over Labor Day but the room and flight rates...

Thanksgiving trip is a done deal.  Adding a night on the front and back end, now will be a 6-night affair. Leaving after work on Tuesday and coming back early Monday. Flight on United, a very good rate for Turkey week at $236. Was very unlikely to get any better than that for a holiday week between now and then, so jumped on it. Figure since I'm going in Tuesday night the airport might not be too fucktarded, but it may be anyway. Will just plan to get there early. If all goes well should be checking in by 8p. Sticking with Mandalay Bay, just added the nights. Bumps the rate up to $386 all in but that still represents 4 comped nights, by far the best resort-to-rate combo in the Mlife world that week. I'm done with Aria and it was 4 times the cost anyway. Should be a nice mellow vibe that week there, they don't get much traffic on non-convention weeks. Less than $700 all in for trip overhead for 6 nights at a great resort is nothing to sneeze at. Will have to do some cabbing ...

A few days back from the 6-nighter in July. Again no blow by blow just some highlights. Flights: Southwest on the in, Alaska on the out. Both were fine. No trouble on the in, out flight was a little delayed getting off the tarmac but not too bad. Rooms: Cromwell for one night was fine. Got in a little late and was given an accessible room. Whatever, didn't end up taking a shower anyway. Room was small but nice enough. Nothing special, not sure why it usually costs so much. Check in was painless.  Aria was a bit of a mess. I'm doubtful that I'll be staying there any time soon again. Casino staffing is poor. Rooms are really showing age, not up to a 5-star standard anymore. Many food venues closed during the day even on Sunday and what was open was so packed you couldn't get in. Monday night 3/4 of the slot machines on the entire floor were down and I consistently had machines all week that were slow to load Mlife or didn't accept the card at all. Taxi line was a si...

Whelp, here we are again. For the 40th time in 10 years, I'm hours away from heading off to happy land. The cash is out of the bank, the laundry is done, the bag is 70% packed. 48 hours from this writing I will be sitting on the tarmac of a plane headed for the Vegas. It's been a strange lead-up to this trip. There's been so much going on in my life here that I've not had much time to think or put much planning into the trip, but of course I have this down to a science now. 40 trips to the same stretch of 4 miles of road will do that for you. It comes at a good time. I'm established at the new job now and don't feel like I have to worry about proving myself anymore. Money-wise I'm fine, when I come back I should still have something in the range of $8-9K saved, so still a decent cushion and with the raise at work and the ridding of the car it should only keep growing. I'm not scrimping on this trip at all. It's $1K per day full and $500 for the short...

It's that time again. Nearly Vegas time. I've had such a strange lack of hype for this trip. The new job and all the other personal news from the last whirlwind month+ has blunted my normal buildup to a trip excitement. Such is life when you aren't constantly in a rut, as was the case for much of the TFS time and nearly all of the GL tenure. Vegas was all I had to look forward to. Plus I did just go in May so it's not like I've been pining for Vegas for months like on a normal trip gap. I'm looking forward to it though. It'll be a good long trip that I can sink my teeth into, almost Xmas-length this time. Money will be no issue, will have no car worries to fret about while gone (because I no longer have a fucking car!), and I feel comfortable walking away from the job for a week, such is the entrenchment I'm feeling there already. I'm an important member of the team and already feel pretty indispensable. It's nice after the nameless, faceless fee...

Whelp my little Corolla hatch is no more. I was able to arrange to get out of my lease for no cost with the Toyota dealership, so she's gone. I just wasn't driving anymore with the new job so close. Win-win for me and the dealership. I get out of the lease, payments and debt for the next 2 1/3 years, and they get to resell the car in this crazy used car market for a tidy profit. It was a good car, even though I had it for less than a year. Had no problems with it and it faithfully got me to/from work when I needed it and even on a round trip to Vegas with no issues. Just no need for the expense anymore. As soon as I started the new job 2 miles away it became a liability instead of an asset. Having a car in SF is like a prison sentence. You're locked into the daily cadence of driving to work, having to leave as early as possible to get a decent parking spot, then never driving outside of commute due to crushing fear of losing said parking spot. When I worked in SSF I had lit...

Less than two weeks to Vegas-ness July. 'Spose it's time to come up with a plan. These posts are starting to become a bit vacant. I find that in most cases now the best plan in Vegas is to not have a plan. But I guess it's a tradition at this point so off we go. -Wednesday Fly-in day. Leaving work at 2p, straight to the airport for the flight in on Southwest at 5:45p. Assuming no delay goofiness I'm in town and cabbed over to Cromwell by 8p. Then it's just an ease into things night. I have $500 budgeted for the night so enough to get a meal somewhere, and drinks to get the relax going. Maybe a hundy or two of VP, but nothing over the top on night one. Probably will stick around center strip as it will have been a long day working and getting in so not anticipating much adventurousness. -Thursday First full day, probably lounge around the room until check out time and then get at least the bag and hopefully me moved over to Aria as soon as possible. Doing mobile chec...

Um, huh. I just got an $11K salary bump at my work. I just started this new job. It's going more or less fine. It's a healthcare start up, it's a really good idea. Really good ideas in healthcare tend to get acquired. That just happened, only a month after I started, and everyone from our company is getting a salary bump. Now they could have just said "hey man you've only been here a month let's just go with your current salary", and honestly I would have been fine with that because it was a bump from my last job anyway. But no. They decided to give me a considerable salary bump, a small signing bonus, and 13K stock options in the company. A company that's worth $4B and has been "exploring" going public. Obviously the options don't all vest at once, I'd have to be with them for 4 years for that to happen but even a 25% vest after a year of employment could be a life-changer. This is all a bit shocking. Even the salary bump alone will ...

  Another very respectable set of savings for the July Vegas. -5 nights at Aria, $409 all in. Would be $2339 (!) if I was booking with no status. Savings of $1930. -$50 in Freeplay and $50 in resort credit from the booking package, $100 value. -$73 Mlife points from the Mlife CC that will be converted to Express Comps for resort credit. Probably a few $$ more accumulated in-trip. Call it $80 value. -1 night at Cromwell, $106 all in, would be $152 if booking with Caesars, saved $46. Altogether $2156 saved over Joe Imanobodywithnostatus. That room saving is the tits. Rates everywhere now are insane, glad I locked in the great packages back when they were practically giving away rooms. Less than $100/night at a 5-star in Vegas in the middle of a bitch-ass busy summer, hard to beat that. Solid rate at Cromwell for the fly-in night too through Priceline. So I belly-ache on this blog from time to time about Mlife but in truth they take pretty good care of my low-rolling ass. $2000+ of sa...

1 month. Now it begins to get real. The final planning, if any, starts. The daily hands of practice video poker begin. The deciding on food reservations happens. I start to count down the days in my head. I start to scour the Vegas news sites pre-trip for juicy nuggets. The posts on this goofy blog get more frequent. All who read it suffer. Since I am moneycashboy I decided to sneak in an extra night by just coming in the Wednesday instead of Thursday. I have Thursday off anyway and will just leave a little early from work on the Wed so no big whoop. Gives me a full 5 days on the ground. I booked the added night at Cromwell. Got a really good deal on Priceline, $30 less than booking direct. $105 all in. Always have wanted to stay there and the location is good to stroll across to Aria the next day. I thought about just cancelling my Aria res and re-booking but it looks like weekend rates went way up, so don't want to risk losing the great rate I booked early in the year. The fligh...

Starting to question my choice of trying to chase status at Cosmopolitan. I'm close to getting to Gold in Identity there, and probably will attain it on the July trip. I've piled most of the spend from gambling for the last two years into that place. But the rates, sweet Jeebus the rates. I have, through Mlife, 5 nights in July at Aria, a 5-star, very nice resort, for a little over $400 all in. If I booked the same standard room with Cosmo, it would cost me over $2300 . Fuckity fuck? For 5 nights in a base room? On a nothing, non-holiday weekend? Christ crackers. I know Vegas is "back", but I've thrown in a combined $30K coin in over 2020 and 2021 thus far. And I'm UP through that spend. You would think they would want to comp me a damn room so I'd give them back some of their money. As far as I can tell I'm not even really getting a significant discount for all that spend. Even if I do get to Gold, get the 2 free nights a year and the comped resort fe...