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

Booked a maybe trip for Thanksgiving. Taking advantage of my restored decent booking packages with Mlife, and scored 4 nights for a little over $200 all in. I will likely be off for the 4 days from work anyway, so might as well do something fun instead of just sitting around doing nothing in my hobbit hole. Mandalay Bay for this one if it happens. 4 nights, 3 full days. Only a touch over $10/night for a standard no view room. It's far south, would need to take taxis everywhere yadda yadda but I love the MB complex and it was the best room/resort quality to rate ratio to be had. The fly in/out would probably be nightmarish, in Wednesday out Sunday like the rest of humanity in the airports, but would probably just mean getting to SFO a little earlier. Not even going to look at flights yet until the summer fare rush peters out. Driving would be out as I may not have a car by then and it would be even worse on the roads anyway. If flights are outrageous I can always cancel, but this wo...

  Already just 6 weeks out from yet another Vegas trip. Feels like I'm still recovering from the last one. I have zero hype built up yet. But alas, I need to start getting amped up and prepped up soon for trip 3 of the year already.  The logistics are set and are very unlikely to change. It's a weekend trip and I long ago locked in a great rate and package from Mlife for Aria, so it's very unlikely I'll be moving out of that, for financial reasons. $409 all in for 5 nights over a weekend, ain't nobody beating that right now with Vegas coming back like it is. It's been pre-COVID busy for months now, and with all restrictions and capacities dropping today, it's only going to get busier and more expensive. Aria a bit of a come-down from the glory of Encore but hey, it's hundreds less. I can get decent weekday rates through places like V/P but the weekend days would kill me at $250+. Maybe next trip. After the weekend trip I had in April I have concerns abo...

Back from the Vegas. Some impressions of a pretty good trip. The Flights: Frontier came through. No issues no complaints. Both on time and no retarded seat mates which on Frontier is a coup. Parking was fine at Crown Plaza in Burlingame too. The Resort: Encore is a beautiful place. Just a very pretty and luxurious spot to stay 4 nights. The room was all it was billed as, spotless, perfectly maintained, and comfortable. Big soft bed, tablet room controls, plenty of lounging room for people (which would actually happen on this trip). Bathroom nice, tub used, shower power a little anemic but that was the only complaint. Wynncore's only issue was it was barely open for the time I was there, no sports bar, few restos, very few bars or food in general. I would have spent more time there honestly if more had been open. It's a glorious resort complex though that I would have 0 issues staying at again. The Food: Nothing special. Plans fell apart for everything I had set up beforehand, h...

Well shiver me timbers, I'm going to the Vegas tomorrow. Had an inkling for a couple weeks that a squeak in trip could happen, but didn't know this one was going down for real until Friday. Perfect storm of the right things happening at the right time made it possible. As I've become really good at, a little bit of creative situation manipulation got it done.  Took a risk by not being fully up front with the new employers and laying off a potential start date by a week. Could have blown up in my face and cost me the job if it had come up in the reference checks, but a trio of former work contacts came through and I'm on to literally bigger and better things. Last job was a good resume filler but was a career suck, was going nowhere and I'm beyond glad to be out of it with no real lost revenue. Even got a couple K raise out of it. I've earned getting to this point in my career. Through a combination of luck and skill, I've amassed a pretty decent resume for a...

Not a record haul, but a good savings over the unwashed filthy comps-less masses. -4 nights at Encore: $589 all in. Would be $855 with no Wynn membership, so saved $266. -$100 resort credit and $50 free slot play at Wynn/Encore: $150 value. -$91 resort credit at Cosmo, $51 free slot play, $142 in value. -$29 resort credit at MGM resorts, $29 value. -About $50 of value on various gift cards and certs around town. $50 potential value if used. Total this time: $637. Eh. Going with Encore pared the potential savings this time, I could have gone ultra-bargain with full room comps at a couple MGM spots but I decided to splurge as I am new jobby man. As it is though I'll still get 3-4 free or heavily discounted meals from all the various sources, and over $100 in freeplay here and there as well. Not bad for a last minute trip, I'm just chuffed that I even have the chance to go.

Well, I'm back to fucking Vegas again in a couple days, aren't I? Keeping it fairly simple on a quickie trip this time. A couple things going on though. Monday: Should be getting in around 12:30p if the flight goes as planned, jump in a cab and over to Wynncore by about 1p. Will check in if I can, which on a Monday should be doable, if not I'll probably post up in a bar somewhere on site until I can. Once up to the room, will dump the bag and unpack what little I will have to unpack, then maybe freshen up with a shower or if not needed just luxuriate in what will most likely be one of the best rooms I've stayed at in Vegas. No big rush to get out and about really, but once I do I may grab a drink, get a snack, watch a little of the Giants game and maybe throw a hundy in on VP somewhere in Wynncore. Then if I'm feeling cocktails I can head over to Venetian for my old standby the Dorsey. Down a couple Coconut White Russians and see what condition my condition is in. E...

Old crap job jettisoned, background check underway with no worries there and reference checks went fine at new job. 98.3% sure I'm getting it. Fuck it all, going to Vegas next week. Overhead for the air is going to be laughably small. Found a flight on Frontier for $60 round trip. Yep. No bags or seat selection or anything but who cares for a short last minute trip. Times are great too, will arrive at about 12:30p Monday and get out at 1:20p Friday. Four nights, three full days. Short but sweet banger of a trip. The room, oh excuse me, the suite will be at the lovely Encore Las Vegas. Will be in the Encore Resort King suite, and my first stay at the Wynncore. Decided to splurge, since I've just extracted myself from a job that was dragging me to crap town and am getting myself into a situation that could be a career-ender (in a good way) and possibly VERY lucrative if it all pans out.  In reality the rate is pretty great for Wynncore though, just $85/night plus resort fees. Co...