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

Not much in the way of freebies this time, but some solid discounts. -Hard Rock HRH City View Suite - 4 nights would be somewhere around $900 if booked today, got them for $294 plus resort fees. -$50 off of $100 at Camelot Steakhouse at Excalibur The same two old Restaurant.com $25 off certs for Senor Frog's and Carlos and Charlie's, may or may not use. That's it. Meh. T-minus 2 days.

Got rid of over half of my debt load today by paying off my Capitol One credit card that I had run up to the tune of almost $6500. I was going to wait a little longer in the new job to pull the trigger, since I wanted to make sure I was going to get past the 90 day "probationary" period (which is kinda bullshit, this and most jobs are at-will), but I'm already feeling pretty indispensable after only a month so I went ahead and did it. It really was shackling me down, paying only the monthly minimum I was still paying $2400/year and was never going to be able to significantly pay it down unless I just bit the bullet and one-timed it. I will mourn seeing half of my savings bite the dust as a result but the benefits will be sizable too. It essentially gives me a $200/month raise not having to pay the monthly payment, and a side benefit will be a no doubt sizable bump to my credit score. That may not mean that much to me housing-wise (I'll never be able to afford a...

OMG so much cow on this trip next week. There was nothing much else available on myVegas at my LP level (WHY do I still play this game?) so I chose the $50 off of $100 Camelot Steakhouse deal. Booked the Friday night after I see Endgame. Figure I might as well just make that a south strip day as I'll be at Town Square anyway for the movie. Then I can catch a cab or Uber back to Mandalay, get some lunch, maybe hit Skyfall or Foundation Room or both then head on the short trip to the Ex for Camelot. The only possible issue may be the fact that the myVegas counter line is always fuck-huge at the Ex since all the poors like to load up on the rewards. I've been foiled on this reward many times for that reason but maybe I can get lucky this time and get in without waiting for a half hour just to redeem it. If not I'll just cancel it and go somewhere else, as usual. If I do get the reward redeemed, though, it'll be steak three nights in a row, Delmonico/Bavette's/C...

Closing in on the 50th (!) birthday trip. I think I'm actually going to live to see it. A big birthday and now a bigger trip. 4 full days and a night to ring in what will likely (hopefully) be the last third of my life. If I can make it to 75 that'd be a moon-sized bonus. I still have something like a functioning body and mind, and since that could well not be the case long into the future, I'm going to make the most of it while it's still operational. Not trying to be morbid, but anyone who's actually read this blog (ha!) will know I've had my share of physical issues. That being said, I've managed them successfully enough, and I have at least one more trip into the breach of FunTown to make the most of it. Nothing much else to report. Had a few extra bucks this week so decided to book a more-legroom seat on the return flight on Spirit. Figure every little bit helps on that shit hole of an airline. I'll have one full paycheck before the trip an...

Officially added a day to the birthday proceedings later this month. Rates are high at most resorts that weekend (staying another night at Hard Rock would have cost as much as the previous four) but I found a good rate at Luxor for the Saturday night in one of the renovated Pyramid rooms, so I added that and then bit the bullet for a $150 one-way flight the next day on Spirit again. All told it adds $200 to the overhead but eh, this is my birthday trip, damn it. The new job is going well and the time off has been locked in, and since this adds no PTO to the trip (would have been off on the Saturday anyway) it was really just a matter of sinking the extra funds into overhead and one more day's save, which, what the hell. Now will need $4500 for the full trip but I will have a couple full paychecks from the new job coming in between now and then to help absorb some of the blow. Added one more "plan" thing, will be headed back to Town Square in the morning of the F...

Whelp, 3 months, 3 Vegas trips. I went from coming back from the December trip not knowing if there was going to BE a trip in 2019 to now I'm at least going to be doing 4 and maybe more. Could be a record year if I can squeeze one more trip in in the summer somewhere. That may depend on the situation at the new job but I imagine it could be a thing. So! The plan for this trip, and there is a (small) plan. 4 nights, 3 full days and a bitch of an early morning fly out day (as of now) but eh, it is what it are. This is, as I've made clear ad nauseum, the 50th birthday trip, so there will be some serious lack of moderation going on. I will be fooding, drunking, and ass-grabbing to excess for every waking moment I'm there. STEP 1: Foodz. I will be having at least 2 great steaks while in town. On the 24th, the day before the birthday, I will be at Delmonico in Venetian. Their filet knocked my socks clean off on the February trip and I can think of no better pre-show mea...

Quick, fine, normal. Thank you, next.