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

Sure, why not. No other real opportunity to get a few days in Paradise, Nevada aside from that weekend, so we'll squeeze it in. Going MGM this time in a West Wing room, decent rate for not much notice and a holiday, just over $480 for four nights. One night comped. No reason to spend any more than that on such a short trip, West Wing rooms are small but I don't mind that and I like the quick in/out they provide to yjr strip from the resort. Lierally you wlk out of the elevators and onto the strip. Only concern might be crowded check-in and elevators on that weekend, but what are you going to do, it's going to be busy everywhere. If a better offer comes through (now that I Pearled up) from another Mlife resort I can cancel this one and re-book but I certainly am unlikely to find a better rate. No work time lost, really, taking the Friday as PTO (everyone was going to be off at the facility anyway) and just will leave slightly early from work to catch the fli...

It's back to SIN CITY tomorrow. Where the SIN is. Or, in my world, Thursday. All is at the ready. The money is out of the bank, I'm checked into the flight, pre-checked into the room, the car is safely parked for the 4 days and I'm 70% packed. I'm charging up the Bluetooth devices and will head to bed early to try to get a solid 8. Long-ish day tomorrow, as I have to be up at the regular time to shave, finish packing and catch an Uber to work. Be there by 8a, work til 1p then over on another Uber to the airport. Even if all goes to plan I'll be 12 hours up before I step foot on the strip. That was always the plan, though, so knowing that I'll probably take it relatively easy and set myself up for a relaxing night and probably an early (for Vegas) bed time tomorrow night. Then it can be all go for the 3 full days. This will more than likely be the last trip until Xmas, so I intend to let it all (at least what's left of it ) hang out. I have a...

Not muchofa. In around 6p Thursday night, straight to a cab and straight to Luxor to check in. With any luck checked in, carry-on unloaded, freshened up and out to the strip by 7p. Probably taking it a little easy the first night, won't have a huge spend and will probably be slightly tired from having been up since 6:30a, having worked, and having dealt with the airport bullshit. May just scrounge around the south strip, get something to eat no doubt and lay off gambling with an eye on perhaps a reasonable bed time. Starting out the first night going ultra-deep put me behind the 8-ball on the last trip so probably just easing into this one. No Double Down and early morning downtown trips this time, most likely. Friday, the one semi-plan day. Not much in the day time aside from to sleep to my hearts content, then hit Mandalay using a free buffet reward (my first Vegas buffet!) to fuel up before getting the trip truly rolling. Drinks and some VP in the afternoon no doubt on th...

10 days out from the 4th trip of the year, time to tally up some discounts. Reasonable haul for a short trip. -Luxor Premium Pyramid room for 4 nights, $37.32 plus resort fees, would be $457.88 plus fees if I wasn't in Mlife, savings of $420. Crazy. -myVegas voucher for $50 drink credit at the Times Square bar in NYNY. -myVegas free lunch buffet at Mandalay Bay reward. $22 value. -myVegas reward for two glasses of champagne at Prime in Bellagio, I don't know, $20 maybe? -Hardly even worth mentioning, but still sitting on the two unused R.com $25 certs as well. Am saving a little over $500 over what some Joe Shmoe with no Vegas status would pay. That's offset somewhat by a fairly high flight ticket this time at almost $300, but at least it's not bargain basement like Spirit and I'm flying in and out of SFO thank Jeebus. Despite my long, storied love/hate relationship with myVegas it still is more or less worth the minimal effort I put into it daily. ...

Strange lack of buzz for a trip that's less than 3 weeks away. Maybe it's the fact that I've already been to town 3 times this year and 4 times in the last 6 months. Maybe I've been more focused on the new job (true) and the illness I've been fighting the last couple weeks (very true). In any case the hype train should start ramping up now as on this Thursday I'll be 2 weeks out from a solid 3 1/2 day'er. Don't think there's going to be much of a plan - no shows worth seeing in town and no real theme like there was on the birthday trip. Still pretty buzzed about the killer rate on a good room I'm getting at Luxor. Less than a $40 room rate (not per night - TOTAL) for 4 nights over a weekend is basically the same as a full comp. No possible way I was going to get anywhere near that rate literally anywhere else. MGM/Mlife continue to at least somewhat subsidize my Vegas habit, despite me not really paying them back much. I'll take it. ...

Trip # 4 (!) of 2019 is locked in. Going to jump over again due to some light duty workload at the new job next month for a 3.5 day quickie. Our new building will be in holding mode probably until the end of June, so I'm rolling out to town the 2nd week of. Leaving work and heading to the airport for a 4:20p flight getting in around 6p, have that full night then will be in town over the weekend with a fly out at a sensible hour on Monday. Only 2 days work missed and more or less a full-ish trip. The flight was more than I would have wanted at nearly $300, but I just threw it on the Discover and will pay myself back this next payday. No stupid early fly out time this time, I'll be on a flight back at noon so I can get a good night's sleep Sunday night and not have to murder myself with an early wake up call like last trip. I can be up around 10a and still be to McCarran in plenty of time. I will also have 3 full paydays coming before the trip, so with some weekend s...

Another trip done and dusted. Pretty good one overall, maybe 4/5 of a good trip I'd say. Some ups and downs. Follow along below as I do the heart-rending play by play. Tuesday night, late flight in was on time and got to the Hard Rock before 10p. Easy check in, but since I was late had to take a 2-queen smoking room instead of the non-smoking king I booked. Not ideal, the smoke smell was noticeable but the upside of the room was getting a pool/strip view out of the deal. The room was nice, plenty sizable and the bathroom was huge. Nice to have the suite for the birthday and HRH was fine as a home base for the first 4 days. So out to the fun by about 10:30p, hit the Smash bar in HRH first for a shot and beer, saw the last few minutes of the Knights getting beat which bummed the locals. Then quickly made my way out into the warm night to head down to Double Down Saloon a couple blocks down the street. Met a personable bar patron named Dave (who in retrospect was probably trying...