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

The older I get, the less I give a shit about sports. I've always been pretty selective about what I follow sports-wise anyway. I didn't share my dad/brother's passion for sports as a kid, I was much more interested in playing with Star Wars toys than watching sports with them. I didn't play any sports as a kid, I was in a youth basketball league for one season probably just at my dad's pleading. I sucked at it. I got into martial arts around when I was 13 or so, but that wasn't really a sports thing, it was an idolizing Bruce Lee thing. I didn't play or follow anything sports-wise until I picked up tennis when I was in high school. My mom had been into tennis and I had hit the ball off the garage door here and there but when I finally started playing in my sophomore year, I went crazy. I was obsessed. Played pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day in the summer from my soph year to my first year in community college. When I wasn't playin...

Because, mystifyingly, CET continues to provide me with free hotel rooms for no apparent reason, and because I'm silly, I have booked a March trip for next year. 5 free nights at Paris in a brand new Burgundy room with an Eiffel view. Just paying resort fees again, less than $200 where normies would have to pay over $1200. Arriving on a Wednesday night late and leaving on a Monday. In on Frontier  (UPDATE:Frontier dropped the SFO/LAS route, so had to spend $25 more to go in on Virgin), out on Virgin. Arriving around 10p, so really it's 5 nights, 4 days, then out in the afternoon on Monday. Round trip flight ridiculous at exactly $100 (UPDATE: now more like $125. Still good). All told should only have to take Th/Fri/Mon off work, and it's usually slow around then at my job so no big whoop. Haven't spent much time at Paris in all my trips, so this should be interesting. Good location as it is with PH for Xmas. Again just paying the resort fees for 5 nights, so aro...

Not much of a plan. Pretty unhindered on this trip. No messing around with myVegas, no being tied to Mlife resorts or any resort for that matter. No resort swapping as I have done in the past on Xmas trips, just 5 long, free days at Planet Hollywood. I get in on the Thursday before Xmas, around noon. Probably a little early to try to check in, so I'll likely get the car to take me to the Cosmo, maybe grab a quick lunch at the Henry to get some liquor soaking going on, then have a drink or two at one of the bars before crossing the street to check in at PH. Check in, grab a six-pack from The Store by the lobby to take up to my in-room fridge (a free one with no strings attached!) and head up to check out the Ultra Hip Fountain View room. Unpack, iron some shirts if needed, relax for a little bit, have a beer and check out what should be a pretty great view. Don't think I'll need a nap as I don't have a crazy early wake up call this time. After that I'm fre...

Oh Mlife. I love you and hate you. Was thinking about getting a double book situation going on for the Xmas trip, since I almost always have some sort of Freeplay/Resort Credit in all my offers. Just last week there were still up to three nights and FP/RC in my offers. Logged on to the Mlife site tonight - all gone. I get a "tier discount" of about 5 bucks off on nights I want to book. Just, whatever. I guess I didn't throw enough money away in the trip a couple weeks ago, so now I'm a second class citizen again. In about 2 weeks all my tier credits go away too as they do every October 1st. Wouldn't be surprised if I lose Pearl status when that happens. UPDATE: Nope, still Pearl. Hooray? I don't get the algorithms Mlife uses. After the last time they demoted me I actually got BETTER offers than I was getting at Gold. Now, despite staying and playing at MGM resorts exclusively this year, and staying at MGM resorts on 13 of my 17 Vegas trips, I'm...

Finally, completely, totally done with myVegas, once and for all. Just tired of it. Not fun anymore, too hard to win any chips and the rewards aren't worth the effort, or once you've found a reward you like you can't use that reward again for what, a year or more? Forget it. Also allows me to close my Facebook account, which I only had open as a requirement for myVegas. Try to find me now, high school reunion peeps! Feel like I'm getting an hour of my day back. Won't say it was wasted time all these years, I was able to cash out quite a few good rewards, but the ends no longer justify the means. I mean, I really never NEEDED to spend $150 at Tender to get half off, anyway. So the Xmas trip will be very simple, rewards-wise. No Freeplay anywhere. No resort credit. Just 5 free nights from Planet Hollywood and that seals it. I suppose I could double book with MGM somewhere if they give me a good FP/RC package for those dates and just use up the freebies, but...

So yeah, that happened. Another Vegas trip in the books. Almost exactly as I had foreseen. Drinking, bad gambling, decent food, rinse, repeat. Got in on schedule via United at around 9:30a. Jumped in the Bell town car, easy peasy, straight to NYNY to drop off the bag then headed straight over to Cosmo. Went in to the Henry, had breakfast, Eggs Bene, good as always in there. Headed over to Vesper, losing the first of many, many $100 bills in the slots on the way. The bartender in the afternoon is kind of a jerk (strange for the Vesper), just one of those guys who's been a bartender too long and is cynical and stressed out and needs to find another line of work. So I just had 2 quick ones in there then it was up to the 3rd level of Chandelier Bar, talked to Abel, a good guy who runs that bar in the day time. much better experience. Just me and him most of the time. Had a couple more and by this point it's after 1p and time to head back down the strip to check in at NYNY....

Man, it seems like the wait for this trip has been endless. Working Monday, a short Tuesday then I'm out of this bitch and in the desert for 4 days. Right now it's looking like right around 100° for the 4 days I'm there. Not too bad, par for the course. 105° on Thursday but that's the day I'll be inside Mandalay Bay most of the day, so no worries. I'm laundered up and more or less packed, going to try to jam everything into my new Timbuk2 bag for this trip. A little small, but on summer trips where it's just underwear and polos it's fine. Back to the backpack for the Xmas trip. Decided to book the Bell limo again for this trip, about the same $ as a cab and no worries about getting long-hauled by the corrupt Vegas cab drivers. Plus I get to roll up like a baller at the resort in a Town Car or Escalade. I feverishly thought about adding a night to the trip last night, thought I had a great plane rate for the return trip to replace the United one ...