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

We go. It'll be a white Xmas. Somewhere, not in Vegas, silly. If it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. The money is out of the bank, The laundry is done, the bag is mostly packed. The flight and room are checked into. The devices are charging. 7 nights in the desert are upon us. 12 hours from now I will (hopefully) be in the air to Heaven or Las Vegas. Don't have much to be concerned about. Would have like to have gotten the Thermo pennies from heaven but as expected looks like that's not happening. It'll be there on the return, and will help massively. No real worries about spending anyway, have more than enough in cash and CC. Weather for the flight was a concern but that seems to have passed and it should be clear tomorrow. The airport will be busy but I do this every Xmas and it always works out, will just duck out of work at a reasonable time tomorrow. Cosmo and Delano await, good practical choices from an expense and rewards standpoint. Still will...

Pussied out on Fontainebleau.  Had 6 nights booked there for a little over a grand for this trip, was just really excited to check out the place and knock it off the list of resorts never stayed at. The place looks beautiful and though I just had a standard, no view room I'm sure it would have been pretty spectacular. Then I started worrying, as I do. I really do have to MGM-max on this trip, to get to the 20K points I need to retain Gold MGM for next year. It would have been hard to do that staying at a non-MGM resort where you're going to spend the first and last parts of your day. I need to wake up, come downstairs, and throw a couple hundy in every morning, and do the same at night on the way back to the room to make sure I get there. That likely wasn't going to happen at FB, and I would have been constantly worrying about spending enough time in MGM sports to cover all the needed spend. So, in comes Delano. It had been over $200 to book even for me the last couple week...

Nearly there. 187 days with no Vegas is about to end. Longest drought between trips since 2013. Looking to end it in glorious fashion. The last load of laundry is done, the bag is half packed, the money is right, my head is right. Two fabulous resorts over 7 nights await and I'm ready to do this. It's been a year of change at work but I feel like it all came out more or less how I planned it. Extricated myself from a bad sitch in the last job and now, all you can ask for at my life/work level is to be pretty much unfireable, and at least for the next half year or so that should be the case. Have gone through some self-imposed tough stretches financially in the middle of the year but it was never unmanageable and I was certainly never eating ramen. I feel like I've earned a good endcap to this year and in 7 days I get that. So not much left to do. 4 more full days of work to wrap up, pull the rest of the money out of the bank, pack some cool weather gear, shave my balls and ...

I'm about to be delayed-paid for living in San Francisco. I worked for a company in '20 and '21 that was supposed to be making payments to an SF health care ordinance fund in my name, to the tune of a little over $3 an hour. Without going into too much detail it was supposed the help underwrite the cost of health care in the City. Turns out, this company was not making the payments, for the nearly 2 years I was there. So I get a notice last week saying hey, we owe you $6700. You'll be getting that. No other details like, are they going to try to direct deposit it, when will the payment be made, yadda yadda. So I reach out to the number in the letter you're supposed to call if you have questions. Which I do. I'm 2 weeks away from a Vegas trip and you're trying give me basically a full trip save (before taxes)? Fuck yes I have questions. I call the number. It's one of those horrid robo-helper things, and this one is several levels more horrid that the usua...

All over but the shouting now. I'm on a plane two weeks from this post. Everything is set. The save is plentiful and assured, my last check before flying goes in the bank tonight and it's enough to beat the predicted save by $500. Taking a little extra to cover the many cab rides that will be happening to-from Delano. Will have no issues with paying off last month's CC, even if I come home empty-pocketed (cash). Didn't really have to deprive myself of anything over the course of the save either, thanks to the (as it turns out, net after taxes) $2400 work bonus. Always good to head out on a trip knowing all the normal life basics are covered. This is a MGM Rewards trip. At least until Gold is covered, I'm an MGM resort gamblehog. With the Freeplay I have logged and the tier multiplier in effect, hopefully I can get the 20K points covered by Monday then I can be free to drop some coin at FB and see if I can make a dent in their program. Once MGM Gold is got I will be ...

The final pre-Vegas MGM Rewards points from the CC dropped in today. After a good earning month I'm sitting at a little over 52K pre-trip. So assuming I'll earn something like 3K points in December (conservative, being I'll be earning 3X points in town), that gets me to 55K w/o gambling a penny the rest of the year, so I'll just need to earn 20K points in town to keep Gold. Better than I thought it would be, and very doable. With the tier accelerator in play on the trip, if I earn 10K in a calendar day that will bump up to 15K. I may need only two decent earning days of the week to get there. I may just try to take like the Saturday and really start to pump at 12:01am, keep it going through the day and I might be nearly there. I can keep track on the app during the trip so I'll know in real time where I am. It'd be a relief to get it done early, like by Monday latest, so I can just be free to roam and gamble at will at other resort groups later in the trip. Woul...

Whelp, though I can scarcely believe it, we are T-minus one month from Vegalagalus. Time to do the obligatory plan post, that gets almost always uniformly ignored once I'm in town, but I'm a creature of tradition, so here goes. Night one, Thursday: Leave work around 1p, drop the car in the work garage, Uber to SFO and off we go. Fly in time if all goes well with United is around 6:30p. In a cab, over to Cosmo, check in, dump the bag, freshen up and hopefully out to the strip by 7:30-8p. May come down and hit Vesper first for a couple "get started" cocktails, then it's off for a light dinner somewhere at Aria or Bellagio, to start racking up the MGM tier credits. Maybe the food hall thing at Aria, dunno will play it by ear.  Then it's off to drink on strip, nowhere in particular. Probably somewhere mid-strip as I may be wearing down a bit after having been up since 7:30a. Some gambling at Aria or Bellagio maybe on the way back to the room, I will hold off on FB...

It being a worst case scenario post. As I have previously pissed about, the save will not be sufficient this trip. I write this as a plan to deal with this, assuming there is no work bonus this year (which there may still be, making this post moot). By hook or by crook I will have $5700 minimum on the trip. Scenarios: -I get a bonus of maybe a couple grand, and this post is meaningless. Yay! -With my next three paychecks, after paying all normal life expenses:          I have $3500 Vegas save on 11/24 paycheck.          I have $4400 Vegas save on 12/8 paycheck. This is the amount that flies with me.          I have an additional $1300 on the 12/22 paycheck when I'm already in town. The last one is the dodgy one, as it means I float whatever is left on my December CC balance and pay interest on it, which I hate to do but hey, it's Vegas! Assuming I pay $1000 on the 11/24 and 12/8 checks, there shouldn't be more th...

Concerned a bit about the save for the Xmas trip, because there's cause to and because that's what I do. The save is not going great. Various factors have contributed to that. The $630/month I've had to dump into having the car certainly hasn't helped (lease payment, insurance, gas). The IRS payment of $200/month wasn't helping, though that's gone now, thankfully. The cost of life has gone up too, prescriptions, food, essentials, the $100 rent increase etc. All those things factor in. But the main reason is I just spend too damn much money. I spend $250+ on an average Saturday out. I pay $30 4-5 times a week on Door Dash. I make 2-3 weekly $50 Target runs for other shit. It adds up. The June trip hurt too. I'm done obsessing over it but it literally took me 2-3 months to recover from how broke that trip left me, to even begin to save for Xmas. As it stands I have $2900 saved for the trip. I only have 3 checks left before going, and will have 1 more hit the d...

Things looking settled for the Xmas trip, so time to settle up the discounts and freebies. -Comped, no resort fee night at Cosmopolitan on night one, cost $0, would be $242, saves $242. -6 nights at Delano in a King Suite, 3 nights comped, $318 all in. Would be $1392 with no comps and resort fees, saves $1074. -$84 of resort credit at Cosmopolitan, value $84. -$25 Freeplay and $50 RC from the Delano booking, $75 value. -Will have $292 Freeplay and $65 in Resort Credit from MGM Rewards account, value $365. -VIP ticket to Atomic Saloon show, $50, would have been $189 normally, savings of $139. That's $1979 saved over someone without any tertiary comps earned. Not shabby. With all that resort credit here and there I won't have to pay for meals much, especially if I reach 75K Rewards points with MGM and earn the additional $100 resort credit for getting there. I'll be slightly over 52K points when I arrive so with the points accelerator active it should be a if not a slam dunk ...

It has begun. The little twitters of my mind that are telling me: a Vegas trip is not terribly far away. It usually starts about 2 months out from a trip, which is, believe it or not, where we are, finally. Since I got back from the June trip the Xmas trip has been so distant I haven't even really thought about it much, aside from trying to get the overhead of flights and booking handled. Now that they are, the mental countdown can begin. It's subtle things, mostly. Not overt things like how much money I have saved (which is going well at $3K), but little things like "oh I have enough prescription drugs now to get me past the next trip, or "oh I have enough deodorant now to get me past the next trip". Yes, this is level of obsessed with Vegas I am. It's no small thing. I have to admit that the summer/early fall has been a downer. Firstly, the way the June trip went felt like a bit of a betrayal. As if I'd been slept around on my a partner. Then just the s...

MGM rewards are back. Everything looks right I think. I was at 35K points in July now am at 44.8K, which with 3 months of points accrual from the CC is around 3K per month so that figures. Almost $220 in slot dollars too which is nice, and will be even nicer by the time I get to town. With a needed 75K points to stay Gold I have at least an outside chance of hitting it in December as long as I points max at MGM spots. Food, bars, gambles at MGM joints, along with the hotel stay and tier accelerator in place for the trip. Speaking of the stay, nothing final yet. Since the website came back from the hack not much has changed, rates-wise. Of the places I'd actually stay, Aria, MB, Delano, NYNY all have bookable rates now. MB, Delano would have upper-tier rooms that are within the algorithm, but I'd really rather not be that far south. I'm angling for a reno'd room at Bellagio but right now $540 for the 6 nights is a tad high still. As usual, at the first sign of prices goi...

Nothing exciting on the Xmas trip booking front, or any front for that matter. MGM Rewards booking is back up. Not MGM Rewards, though, strangely. The quoted rates are more or less exactly what they were before the hack. A couple good deals ($37/night at Aria, about the same at MB for an Elite King, $12/night at Delano, $6 at NYNY, etc.) but I'm thinking they just reloaded whatever was there before the hack and rates may change when the full system is back.  So I'm going to hold off, which may or may not be a good move...at some point as we actually start to get close the rates will by nature start to bump up. And I've already lost out on better rates from a couple months ago so I'm not going to wait much longer. Still kinda hoping for a reno'd room at Bellagio to come back in range. Would be the best option for a short hop from Cosmo on the first night and it's perfect location-wise in general. Otherwise, just due to the finely tuned room/rate/location algorith...

This is not a countdown. Nowhere near Vegas. This has to be one of the longest droughts in my Vegas history, at least since 2012. When it's over it'll end up being 6 months. Work-related. If it hadn't been for the expense of the car I certainly would have been able to sneak in another fall trip. Ironic, as I'm making more than I ever have but alas, here we are. I'm just not able to save much money now. Added to the car, I'm just spending too damn much day to day. Things were ironically cheaper when I didn't have full-time access to a Target. 3 Target runs a week = 3 x $45 = ah fuck it I don't want to do the math. That and I go out every Saturday and drop $250-$300 per, and it's no secret where the money goes. Door Dash, drugs, etc. Ah well, 1st world man's burden. Still no final-final room for the 6 unbooked days. I have gotten a full comp at Caesars on a Julius room, 6 nights for less than $350 so I booked that as a fall back, but I'm still ...

I'm 1/7th of the way booked for Vegas Xmas. Not sure why I didn't think of this before, but using up my "free" Identity Strerling comped night at Cosmo (free being in parentheses here as I paid dearly for it in June) to cover the Thursday, arrival night on the 21st. It's use it or lose it, so why not. It'll save me some dosh on the overall trip as now I will just have to cover 6 nights with MGM somewhere, presumably. It's a Terrace Studio, which is a step above the base City rooms, they're quite nice I've stayed in them before. It does mean having to jump resorts on the trip which I don't like to do if I can help it, but since it's the first, short night I can just leave everything in the bag and easily mosey over to the other resort the next morning, hopefully nice and early. As always it's a privilege to stay at the lovely Cosmo even if only for a night, especially when it's free. Now for the other 6 nights. Good deals up and down...

No room yet. I do have a room booked, however, as a backup plan. CET came through with a $7/night room at Caesars Palace, in a Julius tower room. Smallish room in a old tower, not recently renovated but it is Caesars, so if nothing really good pops up at MGM spots, I've got a fallback. Thought about doing a newly reno'ed room at Bellagio, and still might, but had I pulled that trigger it would have been $700+ which there's really no reason to pay when I can get a larger room with MGM for under $300. An Elite King at MB, for example. Every resort has some drawback with MGM but there's still time to find the best resort/price/location fit. Most likely will end up with them due to no resort fees, RC and FP package and points maxxage. Encore/Wynn too pricey. Venetian same. Cosmo has no offers for December yet, that could work as those points would transfer to MGM in February but that doesn't help me this year in my Quest For Gold. So we'll see. No rush really - may ...

I'm booked for the Xmas trip. Flying United. Had about $55 of various flight credit from them, and flight prices haven't dropped since I started tracking them 2 month ago so I pulled the trigger. Still pretty expensive at a little over $300 even with the credit; the flight in on the 21st was the big boy. Almost $200 by itself. Holidays, they're a flight bitch. But at least it's out of the way and I will have it paid off well before I go. Economy, so I get a bag and a selected seat. If I'm feeling frisky I may upgrade the seats as I get closer but as it is I'm mid-cabin so having overhead for the carry-on shouldn't be a problem. I flew United quite a bit in the last year between Vegas and the former job, and they were pretty reliable so I'm good with them. Nothing booked yet on the hotel tip, but my August offers, despite not gambling much at MGM spots in June, have bumped up, I'm now $20 more on FP and $50 more on RC so $50/$100. The RC plus my point...

Stuck in the Vegas no-go zone. I'm more or less mentally recovered from the posterizing Vegas gave me in June. The wallet, on the other hand, is still barking. The loss of the nearly $5K cash and the sodomizing of the MGM CC is nearly recovered, at great literal cost. By the end of this Friday I will have paid off $5100 in charges on the card since late June, again mostly from the trip. I can finally now, starting in August, begin to start recovering enough to entertain another trip in my head. However, the spectacular financial failure of JuneVegas has me now in the desert , just not literally, for a while. I can't responsibly even think about another trip now until Xmas. Assuming that will be a 7-night trip, which is how much time I've asked for at work, it'll be a $6500-ish save meaning I will need the entire Aug-Sept-Nov-Dec span to build the funds up again. No opportunity to squeeze in even a weekender trip unless some unexpected windfall comes my way, which is hig...

Oof. Can't lie, that pretty much sucked. Not much to say about this one but that. Some quick impressions I guess. Flights: No issues, both on time and was actually able to get an a hour earlier flight on the out so that was all good. Rooms:   Mostly OK, got into the Aria room right away on the Saturday, got upgraded to a Strip View, fine but boring as always there. The check in line for Cosmo was hellacious on the Sunday, stood there sweating for nearly an hour before finally getting up to the room. Room was fine, PH view, little smaller than I remembered from the first stay but still a very nice room. Housekeeping was a constant issue at Cosmo, one time didn't show up until 9p. Other than that a good base for 5 nights. Food: Almost non-existent. I think I only had 2 sit-down meals the whole time I was there. Flaked on the one reservation I had. Ended up living on Chex Mix and Snickers a couple days. Really bad. Drinking: A lot. Body: Barely hung on. Several nights I came home ...

  2 days ya bishes. Not much left to do. The laundry's done, bag is nearly packed, devices charging, the balls are shaved...pretty much all that's left is to pull a little money out of the bank Friday and GO. That money will be fine. Paid down the MGM CC so it'll be under $1K on go day, meaning I'll have over $7K of available credit for the trip. Not that I'll remotely need it. Just need to hit the bank Friday and pull out $1600 so I can have the usual $1000 per full day plus $700 for the short Saturday night. Leaves me with over a grand in the bank. Hopefully can add some back when I return. If nothing else the save was painless, thanks to April. I'm checked into the room for Saturday. Aria. Will check when I get there to see if I have a Gold upgrade but on a sold out (to plebes) Saturday it's not likely. Have to do actual physical check-in on Sunday at Cosmo but hoping it's painless, again will take advantage of late check out at Aria and try to get th...

Quite a good haul this time on savings. Shall we? -5 nights at Cosmopolitan in a Terrace One Bedroom Suite, special rate w/no resort fees: $1055, would be $2600 with no Identity rate, savings of $1545. -1 night at Aria in a Deluxe King, comped, no resort fees, night's not avail to book so not sure how much savings, another Saturday in June is $409 so we'll charitably call it $360 for the 10th, I added late check out so we'll say a $300 savings. -$50/$50 Freeplay/Resort Credit in the Aria booking package, $100 savings. -$117 in Freeplay built up from MGM Rewards, $117 value. -$57 in MGM Rewards Points (Resort Credit) available to use, $57 value but will increase with play by the time I use them Wednesday, call it $75. So that's a grand total of $2119 saved. And people ask me why I always go to Vegas on vacations. I also saved some $ by using some miles on the United flight but I can't be arsed to look it up, and also still have that $55 in Buffalo Wild Wing's GC ...

8 days from...NOW, I will be on a plane to The Vegas. All is well. Have done a little shopping pre-trip as I do; got a couple more polos to wear as a couple of my old standards are a bit naff, and got a new pair of Adidas so that will be the trip shoe. Will check them out tomorrow to make sure they're comfy but I have an almost identical pair in another color and they're nails. So, as per usual, jeans, sneaks, 4-5 polos and a couple tees, and one dress shirt for my date night (with myself). James Bond I am not, but James Bond wallet I have not. The weather looks to be really good. Summer has happened there and we all know what that means, but mercifully it looks like it will never get much above 95 highs so not too stifling. Enough to melt that mountain snow that was still there in April but not enough to melt me. Lucked out a bit on the Knights schedule in the SC Finals - the only game that could impact me is game 5 which would be the Tuesday I'm there, so if I just avoid ...

Added a night to June Vegas. Figured why not, the money will be in a good place and it'll set me up for a more relaxed Sunday. I'll get into town now at around 6:30p on the Saturday, same fly out day on Friday. Aria comped me the night so it was an easy decision, it'll be $0 for the room and I added late check out so I can relax and not have to try to rush over to Cosmo early Sunday morning. Maybe stay in the room until 12:30-1p and then head over next door to check in there. The flight was an easy switch, no change fee on United and actually got a refund on the date change, then upgraded to a mid-cabin seat so it was basically a wash. It'll also be a more relaxed airport day, won't have to wake up at the ass crack to get to the airport on a Sunday morning. I'll drop the car in the work garage again and just Uber to the airport from there, easy peasy. A later in the day flight brings up the possibility of a flight delay but just have to roll the dice and hope.  ...

Here we are, hovering a few scant weeks away from another Vegas. Doing this one right, room-wise. We are suite-ing at the fabtastic Cosmopolitan (with a side of Aria). The Terrace room not the biggest room I've stayed at in Vegas. Not the newest room I've stayed at in Vegas. Maybe not even the "best" room I've stayed at in Vegas, but surely my favorite. So, here's the plan... Saturday Rolling in around 6:30p if all goes well with United, over to Aria to dump the bags and with any luck out to the strip by 7:30p. No plans, can get up to anything and can go deep if need be as I don't have to be up early the next day. Will have $50/$50 to spend on VP/food in the Aria package that I have to use that night so may stick there to soak that up, then it's off to the races on a Vegas Saturday night. Sunday Sleep in, recover, nice relaxed morning then head over to Cosmo around 12:30-1p to get checked in there. If I have to wait at all, maybe hit Vesper if a friend...

Doin' thangs in June. I didn't want to go fully no plan like I did last trip, so I have made the Wednesday night my "date with myself" night. I'm going to do dinner at the lovely Lago at Bellagio, to soak up whatever resort credit I've accrued before and during the trip. I've got $68 worth now, plus with whatever drops in from the CC this month and whatever I earn between Sun-Wed in town I should have a solid hundy and maybe $120 ready to unload. Lago has a great view of the fountains and I've never eaten there, so we'll give it a go around 5:30p. Then it'll be back over to the home base Cosmo to see OPM (formerly Opium). I saw it several years ago and thought it was the best Vegas show I had ever seen to that point, and apparently now they have re-tooled the show so it'll be like seeing it from scratch. Dropped $120 on the ticket but fuck it, it's a known quantity and I do need to patronize shows once in a while there so I'm not j...

The Dorsey is closing in June. This bar has defined a lot of my trips since it opened in December of 2016. I was there opening night, it was slow and the vibe was not quite right but they already had amazing service and amazing drinks. I can't even count how many Coconut White Russians I've had there over the years. Met some true friends there as well and started countless long, great Vegas nights at 4p at the Dorsey. Nothing lasts long in Vegas though, particularly in nightlife. Longtime bartenders have left, the service has dropped, and once Sam Ross the creative director was kicked out the writing was probably on the wall. Sadly the plan seems to be to overhaul all three of the Collective bars, with Rosina and Electra soon to get the axe too. Apparently the plan is to do a fucking dueling piano concept in the Dorsey space. What a fall from grace. The bar closes a couple weeks after I leave town from the June trip, so at least I'll be able to go in and pour one out to one...

Well with a good, lucrative trip under my belt to start the Vegas year, it's time for a short turnaround and to start getting into the next one. June 11-16 is on the calendar. It's a bit of forced time off as the company is shutting down that week for a cost-saving measure in this tough year for tech. Fine by me as I don't have to ask for the time off, can feel fine about going, and the PTO's already approved.  It'll be back to the fabulous Cosmopolitan this time. It was the best room-to-cost value by far. Got a really good offer on the unreal Terrace One Bedroom Suite, just over $200/night and no resort fees. Bit of a splurge on this one but I'll be able to pay the CC down on it with a little discipline before I go, and fuck it, after coming back up from the last trip it's a reward. I may only get three trips this year, if so let's go big on the last two. Stayed in the Terrace One Bedroom Suite back in 2015 and it's the best room I've ever staye...

A good trip, that one. Very solid Return of the King (uh, me) after 4 months of deprivation. Nothing momentous, just some good drinking, decent fooding, and in a shocker, good gambling. No blow by blow here, just some general impressions. Had a good flight in, slight delay but nothing horrid, Flight out bad - 3+ hour delay. Took it in some stride by getting late checkout but on fly out day just get me the fuck home, and Alaska didn't. But file it under shit happens. Plenty of drinking, never felt too out of control, also did some light shrooming most days of the trip which was mostly good but it got me on Monday, I took too much apparently and freaked out a bit after about an hour out and several resorts away. Made it back to the room and let it wear off and the night was OK, but by about 1a that last night I was fried. For the most part though the body hung in there and kept me in fun all day every day with no naps. I slept OK for the most part. Hung out a bit with Evan again, at ...

Escapade #48 all time in Las Vegas, Nevada begins in around 48 hours. The prep is basically done. The money is out of the bank, the laundry is done, the bag is partially packed, I'm checked into the room, there's not much left to do. I check into the flight tomorrow night, do a little more packing Thursday morning then head off to park the car in the work garage, work Thursday til 4p then I'm gone. All is well. Waffled a bit on staying at NYNY as with the funds inflow I could afford an upgrade to a suite somewhere, but I'm good with getting re-acquainted with one of my former fave resorts now that the rooms are fresh. Certainly can't sneeze at how little it's going to cost me, and nothing else in the MGM palette really tickles my nuts right now. If Aria's standard rooms finish the makeover they're under maybe I'll stay there later this year. Money's good. Still have $2K in the bank after all needs and wants are pulled out. $1K per four full days ...

They dragged ass for a good month, but the distribution from my old 401k finally came through this morning so the "save" is done. Actually got about a grand more than I was expecting, which is nice, so over $8K in the account RN. Will have another $2300 coming in from the paycheck Friday so paying down the MGM CC to almost nothing, and will have roughly $8K of spending umbrella on that, plus will take around $5K cash along for gambles and incidentals. I have a decent amount of MGM RC on this trip so probably won't have to hit the CC too hard. Unless it's a MGM spot there's no real reason to blast it - but 3X points on MGM spots will be a do. Bevvies, lunches, MGM bar drinks, all on the CC. All that will be easily pay-off-able in the following month with what's left in the bank before and after I go and with the normal paycheck infusions. I'll likely have something around $2K still in the bank when I'm wheels up next Thursday. It's a crazy low overh...

I've been a bit of a poshy the last few years. A lot of stays at Cosmopolitan, Aria, Encore, The Conrad, etc. I'm looking forward to taking a step back and staying at a good, old "fun first" joint. I stayed at NYNY a ton in the early Vegas days. I stayed there 6 times in the '13-'16 era, when I was trying to maximize every penny I could save on overhead. I wasn't getting offers for the high end MGM resorts back then as I was spending a lot less on gambles. Back then I might do $7-10K coin in all year at MGM spots, whereas last year I dropped in $41K. But man, some of those trips were fun. True low-rolling; playing MyVegas all year to squeeze out a few discounts, staying at NY or Monte Carlo or Luxor, whoever would comp me a few nights. I was over the moon for Vegas and couldn't get enough, it was an obsession and I scraped and clawed for every penny to afford those trips. These days the resort quality has gone up, and the save is not nearly as hard, bu...

As of the writing of this post I am two weeks out from being on the ground in Vegas almost to the minute (if the flight is on time). Settling in to the job pretty well. It's very different from other things I've done. It's nominally "customer service" but 80% of the job is just sending and responding to emails. Tons of detailed coordination. Leaning on One Note heavily to keep it all organized. It's a steep learning curve but I think in a couple months when I'm fully in the flow it will be a keeper. The good is that I'm out the door at 7:45a every morning and home before 5p every afternoon and no weekends ever so the work-life balance is great. With an increased 401k save every month (have to start fucking saving for retirement at some point) and with having to spend over $100/month on health insurance again, the raise is negligible, but at least I didn't lose anything in the job swap. The new car is good. According to the car forums it's an u...

So! We are counting down to the Vegas again. Plan post, with no plan. Just some highlights: The in: If all goes well, on the ground on the 20th, a Thursday, by about 9p. Cab to NYNY and checked in, up to the room to dump the bag and out to the strip by 10p. Will have been to work all day and up at around 7a so if this isn't a rager night all is forgiven. No plan this night (a theme on this trip), might stay close to NYNY so no need to cab anywhere. We'll see. Light gambling, a snack, and drinkies on the menu. The bulk of the trip: Then Fri-Mon it's just the Vegas-ing. Not seeing any shows (nothing left that I want to see), only 2 dinner reservations (Saturday at Morimoto at MGM, Monday at Il Fornaio at the home base), and beyond that it's just the big wander. It's a short enough trip that I don't think I have to do a cool down day, but we'll play that by ear (and the rest of the body). This trip will really just be walk out to the NYNY valet in the morning a...

As I rapidly age and my wizened body fails me, about the only thing that has kept birthdays from feeling funereal is the fact that I'm usually in Vegas for them. Such will be the case again next month as I turn 54, so as is my wont it is time once again to tally up the amount of cash that I'm saving compared to what a smelly, horrid, unworthy mound of flesh with no resort status (unlike me) would pay. -5 nights at NYNY in a Soho Premiere: $20 after Gold status removal of resort fees. Would be $1532 at rack rate, savings of $1512. -$50 in FP, $100 in RC, courtesy the MGM Rewards booking package, value $150. -A further $87 in RC and $119 FP left over from past trips, $206 in value, will increase as I tack on play during the trip. -$55 in Buffalo Wild Wings GC's I can use, should some sort of mind riot cause me to think going to a Buffalo Wild Wings in Vegas is a good idea. $55 value. Total: $1923 potentially saved versus a non MGM Rewards trip. As much as I complain about the...