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

The countdown is on in earnest for trip #1 of 2017. One month from today I will be back in the happy zone (actually 28 days since Feb is a short month yay!). The money will be in a good place, I am aiming to have $4500, $1K per day plus $500 for the fly-in night. Saving's already begun with $700 in the bank and I will be getting my nearly $2K tax refund in the next day or two, so I really only need to put together another $1800 in the next three checks, one Friday, one on the 20th and then I will be getting paid while I'm in town too, so should be no worries. Not  super  excited to be staying at Paris, the casino itself has never really impressed me and frankly it seems a little run down (like many CET resorts) but since the (free) room is a recently remodeled Burgundy that part of it at least should be fine. Probably won't end up spending much time aside from sleep in the resort but we'll see. And did I mention the room is free? I've been so wrapped up in ...

Well the big "I just bought a new used car and need to get it checked out" maintenance is done and it dinged me to the tune of $2900. -Leaking power steering pressure hose replaced -Both front CV boots replaced -Leaking transmission fixed and sealed -Hood strut replaced -Major interval service done (basically every fluid and filter on car replaced or drained and refilled) -New remote key programmed and cut Went to Advanced Autowerks in SF, they have very strong Yelp rating, specialize in Audi and use all original parts. They said despite all that needed to be done, it looked like the car had been pretty well taken care of, what they thought is that the car had been sitting for a while more or less undriven. Belts, brakes, tires all in good shape and aside from fluids no big engine work needed. I expected the hit. That's why I'm cut down to three Vegas trips this year, I knew this was coming and it's the price of ownership for buying a German car. I c...

We're booked for trip #2 of 2017. Will be at Bally's in a Jubilee room in the first week of August. So that completes the bookings for the year. It'll be a 3 trip year instead of the usual 4, allowing me to get back and stay on top of finances due to the buying of the car. Been hammering my CC a bit with car expenses, so the 5 month gap between trips will allow me to get it back down to where it should be. I'll absorb the CC hit for now, do the March trip as planned and then pump down the CC debt afterwards. I'm trying hard to remember - I'm not sure I've ever stepped foot in Bally's. The Jubilee rooms were renovated last year though so at least that part of things should be solid. They look modern and nice enough in pics, and they had the added benefit of being free, minus resort fees, of course. Total overhead on this one may be my lowest ever, I was able to use 100% Jetblue points to book the flight, so total overhead will be around $175. Bally...

Xmas 2017 booked. More free rooms with CET, booked Some Dude's Palace this time. Will be my first stay at the Flagship. Won't worry about a flight at this point (it's a fucking year away) just locking in the room because, why not? I can always change/cancel it with no penalty. Palace Tower. Looks like the rooms are fairly recently updated and are somewhere in the middle of the CaPa hierarchy. Should be fun spending some time in the Flagship, I've not spent more than a couple hours there in all my trips.  This would be the second comped trip of next year, I have March booked, and that would leave a August/September/October gap that's free at this point. Probably will leave that alone to see if Cosmo comes through with anything during the year or if, Jeebus forbid, I actually decide to go somewhere OTHER than Vegas during that period. The gap from March to mid-year will give me a chance to get caught up on some CC charges I'm going to have related...

2016 Vegas done and dusted. Another 4-trip year, another pretty standard trip to close it out. A fun one though. Just going to go with highlights/lowlights here, as a day by day breakdown is sorta unnecessary. Highlights: -The Dorsey, the new bar/lounge at Venetian. I went there three times on their first three nights of business and had a good time each time. Mellow, good vibe, good drinks and a personable staff makes for a bar I will go out of my way to go to. -The Cosmopolitan. Spent a LOT of time here, in Vesper, at the 3rd level Chandelier, at the Henry, a little bit at the sports book and then...STK. I dumped my reservation at Striphouse at PH to go here and had, hands down, the best steak I've ever eaten in my life. I literally was rolling my eyes back in my head after every bite. This place lives up to every bit of hype. I also earned enough (bad) gambling points to move up to Sterling on Cosmo's player's club, which hopefully will mean an offer or two...

Two more sleeps, one more half-assed day of work, and I'm off to Vegas for the last trip of the year. The money is out of the bank, the clothes are washed, most of them are packed, it's pretty much all over but the shouting. The money is good, best/most I've ever had for a Vegas trip. Over $5300, so that's a full 1K a day and some "walking around" money for the airport bar and the limo driver tip and the supplies for the room when on the ground. Should have no reason to dip into the Cap 1 fund at all aside from the room hold/resort fee extraction. Have no real reason to hold on to much of the cash this time as all the other financials in my life are good up to my next check. Which means I can (though who knows if I will ) gamble more than I usually do. We'll see how the first couple days go. If I'm winning anything it'll embolden me for the later days, if it goes to usual plan I'll make my normal $3-400 donation daily and spend the rest ...

T-minus 1 week to splashdown in Vegas for trip #4 and closing out a pretty good Vegas year. All the details are set at this point, I'll be driving the new car to the airport and parking it; the other option being leaving it on the street here, getting a street sweeping ticket and being worried about it sitting unmoved for a week while prying eyes notice that fact. I do live in the Bayview, after all. So I'll eat the $100 parking fee and at least save myself having to worry about getting a cab on the way back, so I'm really only down about $60 on the deal and will have more peace of mind. Once in town, I'm doing the Bell Limo thing to and from the airport again. For only $30 plus tips round trip it really can't be beat. Even though Uber Pool is in Vegas now and I could save maybe $20 it's like, fuck it, I'm in Vegas, let's arrive at the resort in style. I may end up using Uber Pool in town though to get around as walking up and down the strip in 40...