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

Whelp, it looks like the well of free rooms at CET properties has run dry. Tried to book my next March (yes, March 2018) trip today for shits and giggles, and I no longer have any comped rooms available. I guess the fact that I've booked 20 free nights over four trips in the past few months without playing more than a hundy or so in CET resorts in the past year has finally sunk in to the Total Rewards computer. I'm all comped up for the next two trips, but after that I'm hat in hand. Sigh. So, now the plan I've been hatching to try to get on Cosmo's comp radar needs to get serious on the next two trips, or starting next year I'll have to start *gasp* PAYING for a room. Like a commoner. Horrifying. I suppose that could be liberating in some sense. Maybe could book a room at Wynn? Venetian/Palazzo? Mandarin Oriental? Hopefully it doesn't come to that. There are still two trips left this year to rack up enough comps somewhere to get roomed up, but at ...

Back again from the happy place. Meh trip, fairly normal, not the greatest ending. Got into town on time via Virgin around 9:30, was over to the Paris by 10p via Bell Limo. Nice big Escalade. Attempted to check into my reserved Fountain View room but was told none were available. This ragged me off as I had called ahead to reserve this specific room. Was finally given a room with twin beds facing the backside of PH that smelled vaguely of poo. No bueno, but what was I going to do. Shook it off and headed out for night one. Walked straight over to the Venetian trying to go to the Dorsey, but some big convention was at the resort and it was full to overflowing with suits, so decided to get some food instead. Went in to the new Sugarcane, just had a couple appetizers but they were quite good. The salmon poke was great. Then headed into Rockhouse for a couple but nothing was really going on there and they were about to close. Walked over to the Parlor lounge in Mirage and had a coup...

Still doesn't feel quite real but 48 hours from now my plane will be on approach to LAS. Whirlwind, seemingly scant, little over 2 months since the last trip and I'm just about back. All is ready; the laundry's done, the money is GTG. Will pull out $3900 tomorrow and have another $650 available Friday if needed. I have reserved the limo to/from McCarran to the hotel. All that's left is working out the string tomorrow and a half day Wed then come home, park the car safely, get on the bus and head to SFO to commence the lost weekend. Hoping this trip will be a banger, it represents 1/3 of my Vegas time this year so I'd love for it to be a fun one. Still nothing planned, no shows, concerts, nada. Seems the best way for me to go. I don't like being on a schedule here in SF so why should I plan things to the T in Vegas. Just wake up, pick a direction and ramble. There's not much going on in town this week anyway, I think the city is catching its breath bef...

...on trip one of '17. Not much has changed. Still not at the usual fever pitch of pre-Vegas jazz I usually have, but I'm sure it will kick in over these last two weeks. Worked out the situation with parking the car this time, the timing is such that if I park it on the correct side of the street when I leave Wednesday I won't get any parking tickets, as I'll be back on the Monday after so no risk of the Tue/Thu street cleaning violation. Leaving work at 2:30p that day to secure a spot and then will just bus to the airport as I have in the past. Nice to not have to pay the $100+ for parking around the airport like last time. Most likely will do the Bell Limo to/from the airport again. It's $30 plus $10 tips both ways, so maybe slightly more than a taxi but it's far more baller. It'll be the first time at Paris for me, staying anyway. Hopefully the room looks a little better than in the pic above. This is the Burgundy remodeled room. It looks a l...

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...