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

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...