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

The room sitch for BirthdayVegas is locked. Bellagio Tower King Room. These are the recently renovated rooms at the edges of the main tower. This will be I think the 4th time I've stayed in them. They're big enough to be a suite at any other resort, have panoramic views and usually at least an oblique strip/fountain view. They are also at the end of the hall so they are very quiet. A little over $200 all in for 5 nights over a weekend. That's insane. Rack rate would have been close to $2500. It just not fair to the rest of humanity. It was easily the best resort/price/room quality choice over that weekend. I go in on a Thursday and leave on a Tuesday. My birthday falls on a Sunday so no rush to recover like on past Bday trips. Great to have it locked in at a crazy discount. Not going to worry about the flight for a while, I'll probably start tracking it after coming back from the holidays. The 2027 trip sequence will start out in style. Also, T-minus 60 days to XmasVega...

Upgrading some of my take-along for XmasVegas. Having come home not broke from last Vegas, I've been investing a bit in next Vegas. I has gotten a couple warm semi-dressy tops to take along, a Brooks Brothers sweater and a more sporty hoodie by Lacoste. May end up taking 3 Lacoste tops this trip. Becoming a bit of a Lacoste whore. I like them and they make cool clothes, what can I do. Also got a new pair of Florsheim chukka boots. I have a pair of warm hikers but that's a little too casual for Vegas so these should fit the bill. The Cole Haan mesh dress shoes were great for the heat on the last trip but probably too drafty for Xmas. Classic chukka style, with a rubber sole so I won't go slipping around on the strip if it rains, which I've done in the past. Also have upgraded the travel headphones. Gone are the trusty old JBL 460NC on-ears I had for years, new Sennheiser Momentum 4's will be in the bag. The JBL's were OK for sound but were pretty terrible at ANC ...

XmasVegas will be my trip number 60, all time. It's been a ride, man. 60 trips in 15 years. Average of 4 trips a year. I've been up and down the strip and have stayed at almost every major resort that isn't an abject dump, including a few that aren't even there anymore. Riviera, Mirage, Tropicana, via con Dios. I've lost around $30K just at MGM resorts in that time, and probably another $30K total at all the other resorts. I've stayed in 300 sq. ft. closets and 1800 sq. ft. palaces. I've eaten $150 steaks and McDonald's Quarter Pounders. I've had elegant, crafted cocktails and Coors Lights. It was all (mostly) a blast. 60 trips is a milestone, but I have no intention of slowing down. I still get pretty much all my rocks off on Vegas trips, no other destination ticks all the boxes of proximity and ease of travel, great accommodations, action, drinks, food, gambles, and (very) occasional flirtation with female women persons. I still have no desire to g...

  And the great Xmas'ing begins. Only 2 days back from SeptemberVegas, but XmasVegas for this year is tentatively booked. Aria, in a *takes deep breath* Restore Deluxe King Strip View Room. All in for 6 nights is only $200. $95/$50 FP/RC, so in reality value-wise I'm getting nights at a 5-Star resort for $10 each. I've been in these rooms before, they're fine. Aria still desperately needs a reno but they maintain these well enough that they don't become too ratty.  Restore is the old "Staywell", basically it's a loud air filter. Which is nice, actually, for sleeping. Location is good, want to stay well away from the Bellagio shit show that happens for Xmas, but still central enough not to have to cab everywhere. I can cut through Cosmo to get to Aria all week which is its own benefit. Could have done a few other MGM props for less but this is starting and ending  day at a great resort with plenty of food/bev options. I am able to play the field on offe...

It's here again.  For the 59th time, it's pre-Vegas day. What should be a quick but hopefully restful 4 1/2 days in the desert is upon us. The prep is done. The bag is 80% packed, the money is out of the bank, the room is checked into, the flight will be today. I just need to spend about an hour on final bag prep tonight then can get hopefully a good night's sleep and trundle off tomorrow. This will be slightly different in that I have to work tomorrow morning, for a couple hours, before taking off for the airport, so everything will be loaded into the car in the morning. I can leave my work laptop at my site so I'll just need the carry-on and the personal backpack. Can dip out around 10:30a and head straight to the airport, park the car, grab a tram to the terminal and get things rolling with a pre-plane drink. Same loadout as usual. 7 changes worth of underwear, my dopp kit, 5 or 6 polos (no need for anything warmer than that), the iPad Mini, the UE Boom 2, my JBL wir...

MGM doesn't seem to want me to stay in a standard room. Without asking, and 3 days before arrival, I got auto-updated to an Executive King Suite at the Grand. I stayed in one once years ago before it was remodeled. It was a bit dark and dour, but the new design looks more bright and better laid out. It's almost 700 sq ft with a nice big bathroom, living area, 2 flat screens and possibly a strip view. It's always nice to have a little extra room to roam around in so definitely a worthy and appreciated upgrade from the standard remodeled King room. This has never happened to me before, at least as I can remember at MGM props. Being upgraded for free, and not having asked ahead of time, like I did for the Emerald in April. Not sure if this is a new thing MGM is just doing  now for certain guests or statuses, or if I have a shadow host in the background helping me out. Either way I'll take it. Happy for pennies from heaven however they fall, and if this is a new thing at MG...

About a week and a half to bonus 2026 Vegas. With not-shitty gambling the first two trips this year, we are able to squeeze in a 4th Vegas for the first time in a few years. Is good. With the bump from June assisting, I'll have $4K and a little walking around money in the bag going into town, with the ability if needed on the 2nd day there to hit a BMO and pull another $500 or so. Hopefully it won't be needed, it would be nice to hit something the first couple days and take the pressure off.  The only concession I made to the save was taking a couple Saturdays off from going out in the City, both of which will not be big losses due to weirdness at the bars I usually hang out at. So, the full 'Bies for #SeptemberVegas: -5 nights at MGM Grand in an Executive King Suite: $101 all in with my MGM Rewards rate, would be $2170, savings of $2069 over rack rate. -$120 Freeplay, $100 Resort Credit from booking package, value of $220 -$550 of anniversary and tier Resort Credit from R...

My company is doing rather well. All 18K of the other employees have actually done their jobs, and are in the process of carrying my ass to a healthy bonus this year. As it stands after Q3 earnings, I have a potential 8% company bonus in line, 2% higher than last year, and another nearly 4% in personal bonus possible. Personal will likely be a combination of bonus and raise, so if I top out on around 10% bonus, that will be very tidy indeed. Since everything on earth ties back to Vegas, what that means is my XmasVegas will be funded in total from bonus, no save necessary. I can continue to spend frivolously on Skittles the rest of the year, without having to think about putting away any Vegas save. Nice. There's still a quarter to get through. Cheeto Man could invade Greenland or start a war with Luxembourg or something, but failing a pretty complete collapse of the markets in the next few months things are looking good for a relaxed runup to the final Vegas of the year. Now I just...

T-minus 30 days to SeptemberVegas. Not much to report. The itinerary is locked in. I will be at MGM in a standard Deluxe room, no baller suite like April. Fine. I have a pretty good offer from Resorts World for 5 nights in a standard Hilton room for about $350, but that's a $400+ loss compared to MGM's package, with rate, RC and FP factored in. It's just silly right now to stay anywhere else other than MGM resorts. I love RW but I can taxi there, don't have to stay and lose money in the process. So unless some crazy suite deal opens up somewhere in the next couple weeks, it's locked. I will start opening up the VP training app daily starting this week. Not too many hands, maybe 50 a day, I don't want to get burned out with it. By the end of last trip I was fucking dreaming about VP. Not good. I have the hands in my head for the most part, but it helps to see them on the screen before hitting town. Other than that, yeah, it's just count down the days. Nothing...

The trip is set. Got long term parking bought today at a discount, which was the last piece that was outstanding. LTP garage at SFO. $90. It'll be more of a pain in the ass as opposed to the international garages in that I will need to take the tram over to that garage on the in and out, but it's over $100 less than the closer garages are. This being more of a "budget" trip, it seemed prudent. Standard room, standard parking...a standard trip. Nothing wrong with that. Not every trip is an "event" trip like a birthday or milestone. I don't always need terrace rooms with morning views like the above. Hell, this is the first year since '22 that I've even been able to do a 4-trip year, so I'm just thankful for that. A newly renovated room for 5 nights in an upper-mid resort for around $100 is better than 90% of the shlubs who will be in town that week. So the room is set, the flight is booked, the food reservations are made, the car is parked. No...

I just sold some stock in my company to finance #SeptemberVegas. $2K worth. I didn't think I was able to do this, thought there was a hold in place as a condition of getting a 15% discount on purchase, but Fidelity let me do it, the sell order was filled and the funds hit the bank. So I'm off the hook for what would have been a stressful save in September. Have $3500 put away now, I just have to come up with about a grand in September, which, pish posh. Not that I have any need to justify it, but I don't mind dipping into my "retirement" for stuff like this. I already have 2 small loans against the 401k, and this digs another $2K out of the fund, but whatev. Not to be morbid, but I just don't think I'm going to make it to 67 to retire. I don't live my life in a "live til you're 100" way, at all. In truth I'm all about "live for today", and always have been, much more than trying to save for some mythical glorious retirement ...

The MGM Rewards card anniversary bitchslap of points and resort credit has arrived. -$100 Tier Celebration Credit for retaining Gold last month. -$200 anniversary Iconic Resort Credit. -$250 "free room night" credit, which is just more RC. -10,000 bonus tier points for getting to Gold. Add all this to the $100 of RC that is part of my booking package for September, and we have a veritable shitstorm of resort credit booted up. $650. If I exclusively eat at MGM resorts, I won't have to spend a dime for food on this trip, and probably the next one. Crazy. I only have 2 food reservations at the moment, and will probably keep it that way as I like to keep my options open most trip days, but I certainly can B+L+D on the MGM restaurant tip the whole time I'm there. Useful. No extra FP for Slot Dollars from the anniversary thing, but I racked up about $130 last month; add whatever comes in from August and September (which hits while I'm there), add the $120 from the booki...

  A bit financially fucked going into August. I was able to put the down payment on the trip away, $1500, yesterday. However, with buying the plane ticket on the CC in July and having to buy a new chair and dispose of my old broken one, I now have something of a heavy month to pay back the CC and not run any interest. I may not be able to put dollar one away for SeptemberVegas in August, leaving me with 3 checks to come up with the last $3K I need to make the cash save number. I've been in this position before, SO many times. Back in the "still digging out of financial hell and not making that much money" phase of my life, say around 2011-2015, I regularly had to budget the fuck out of my life to make the Vegas save. Denying myself weekends out, skrimping on food, sticking to a strict budget. It's been a while, and I'm out of practice, but I may need to adopt a modified skrimp the next two months. There are ways I could cheat. I could float some of the CC debt and...

  I use what I call the "algorithm" to decide where to stay in Vegas. The algorithm consists of several factors, more or less evenly weighted. Resort:  Do I want to stay in this place from an amenity and poshness standpoint. Is there enough food/bev/VP onsite to make this the place I want to start and end my day every day. Do I like the vibe? Have I stayed here in the past and enjoyed myself? Am I going to have "fun" here over the course of 5 days, relatively speaking?  Room: Standard room for full comp or suite for $300/night? Strip view for $50 more a night? Is this an "occasion" trip like a birthday, and therefore I want to go baller, or just a run of the mill June trip where I can save some $$ on the room. Also, is this a resort or room I want to tick off my "been there" list? Location: Where on the strip is this, relative to dead center strip, i.e. Bellagio. Am I going to have to cab or walk a lot to get here on a daily basis, and what...

  SeptemberVegas. Happening. Decided to make this a 4 trip year. Going to wrap a few PTO days around a weekend and fit in a 5-night, 4-day semi-quickie at the end of September. I'll fly in after the day of work on a Thursday then have 4 full days in town. As of now I have a bog standard room at MGM Grand booked for around $100 all in, but that may change as offers and time roll in/on. $120 FP, $100 RC. So MGM is giving me $120 to come to Vegas again. FB is giving me 2 nights and no resort fees but that's still $500 all in, we'll see what I can coax out of RW when those offers come in. I'll have nailed down MGM Gold a couple weeks from now, so I can be a free agent if I want. As always it'll be hard to beat the dirt cheap MGM rates, and for fuck's sake I've earned them, but it's nice to have a little flexibility the rest of the year if I want it. Thought about driving but with no cool down days before going back to work I thought better of it. A 9 hour dr...

Yep. Vegas. Flights: Fine, no issues. About a half hour delay on the in, 10 mins on the out. Room: Cosmo Terrace Studio, Boulevard, 69th floor, Aria view. Good room, clean, good view, little loud at night. Tons of emergency vehicles all the time. Also was about a half hour late getting into it on the Sunday. But otherwise no issues. Resort: I love the 'Mo, always have always will. Spent a ton of time in there at the start and end of days, never let me down. Spent a lot of time and money at Vesper. Strip: Slow week, and didn't see much of it. Mostly shuttled between Cosmo and FB. Got to Rematch a couple times, a couple Fuels, RW for about an hour, but no new ground covered really. Easy to get around, started getting busier on the 2nd for the holiday WE. Drinking: I don't want to talk about it. Food: Pretty good, had the steak at Jean Georges, the Conos at Jaleo, and made it down for the Bolognese at Carama, all fantastic. Got a couple lunches in there too so overall ate OK, ...

And so it (nearly) begins. Tomorrow is Las Vegas. Really happy I'm doing the vacation the way I am. The trips where I leave and come back mid-week are dildos. You get off of work and head straight to the airport, then on the come back you're right back to work the next day after 5 days of punishment. This way I have a night and a half to relax, clear my mind, and have time to prep for the trip, then when I'm back next Friday, I have 2 days to recover. Civilized. I checked into the flight this morning. Despite buying a row 2 seat, I still had to pay another $16 for priority boarding. Southwest you fucking whores. Whatever, sunk cost at this point, whatever gets me in and out of the airport as expeditiously as possible is worth it.  Woke up this morning and immediately started a flurry of activity, got the dopp kit set up, got all my drugs, legal and otherwise, collected, charging all the electronics, etc. The bag is 90% packed, I'm checked into the Cosmo and ...

T-minus two weeks and change. Still locked down, there won't be any itinerary changes now. I had Carama on the books for Monday, with their unspeakably good Bolognese, but decided that might be a stretch to be that far away from home base (center strip), so I re-added Jean George at Aria instead. It's stumbling distance from the room, the filet is always solid, and that miso steak sauce is top tier. I plan to be at MB for Xmas so the Bolognese will have to wait until then, unless I make it down there. Which I might! Pulled another $1200 out of the bank today for the cash spend fund, only $500 left to pull to make the number. One check left so no problem. Will be at the full $5K plus will probably have a couple hundy extra for walking around money. I get another check literally on the day I come back, so no issues with any bill payment or carrying of debt. Coming back with a few grand, as I did in April, makes the following Vegas save much more relaxed. Been playing 30 or so han...

  I've done plan posts since I started this thing, for pretty much every trip. I don't really plan much on these trips, anymore. This may be the last plan post, unless or until I do some actual planning for a Vegas trip. Which I don't. The bulk of my planning now usually consists of a couple food reservations, so that I'm more or less forced to eat. I have seen pretty much all the shows I want to see, and I generally don't leave the strip to GO anywhere, so these posts have become low quality, really.  So: I get there around 11:30a on a Sunday. I have reservations Mon-Tue-Wed at Jean Georges, Jaleo and Zuma. They will all be very good. I have a no plans day at the start of the trip, and a no plans day at the end of the trip, as is my wont. I will drink heavily, eat (mostly) well and gamble badly for 5 days. It will be hot, as it will be Las Vegas in June/July. Then I will leave on Friday, if I have a pulse. Done! Anything weird that comes up will be covered in the p...

  Oh yes, it's June. It's a Vegas month. Freebies and discounts, as we do. -5 nights at Cosmopolitan in a Terrace Studio King, 3 nights comped, $108 all in, would be $1233 on rack rate, savings of $1125. -$120 Freeplay from booking package, $282 Slot Dollars from CC, value $402. Potential value: trillions.  -$50 RC from the booking package, $33 in Rewards Points, $83 in value. So $1610 of pre-trip value this time. Not remotely an all-timer, and that was never going to be the case since this is a quick turnaround trip. Won't have much in the way of RC. Still tidy though, especially on the room at Cosmo which is a nice one. Have stayed in it several times, plenty of space for a single boy and it's always nice to have a terrace in the summer. Coming back to your room at 3a, altered, sitting on your terrace in 90 degree weather while eating an ice cream bar is next level Vegas. So a little over 3 weeks now from yet another Vegas, looking good, feeling good. Hell, I may even...