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

A decent haul, y'all. -6 nights at Mandalay Bay Las Vegas. $412 all in. Would be $1409 all in with the best website rate. Saved $997 over rack rate. -$30 Freeplay and $50 Resort Credit included in the deal. $80 value. -Roughly $160 in Freeplay from MGM by the time I get to town, $160 value. Total overhead saved = $1237. Not nearly an all timer but not bad for a holiday week trip. Would have been $700 more had I stayed at Fontainebleau as originally planned so a bit of frugality after the baller April trip.  1 month.

Flight locked in June/July Vegas. Back to having to deal with TSA again but at a good rate at least. $170 with Alaska. Get in around 5p on the Saturday and am out at around noon on the Friday. Solid. Could have gone with JSX again for about the same rate as last time but it would have been 3X as much and then would have to add on the crazy Uber rides from OAK again. It ends up being close to $700 all in. Just too much to do every time on non-baller trips. So as it stands 2 months out it's a very nice room at Bellagio (which may change if a banger room from elsewhere comes in) and a solid flight set with no out of pocket time issues. Total overhead well under a grand. The countdown begins again.

Went to Vegas. Drank a lot. Ate a bit. Sat in bars. Flights good, room good, no drama. Spent only $2000 after winnings, of which there were several. Came back from Vegas. The end.

In keeping with the upcoming all-baller Vegas trip, I have some new wrist candy coming along. Plunked down a little over $3K for a Longines HydroConquest full ceramic piece. Flirted with a Tudor as well, but it would have been a grand more and frankly I'm getting a lot more watch with the Longines. Love the simple, clean diver look and the full ceramic case and bezel will mean it'll look better far longer than a stainless piece. Apparently the stuff is basically scratch proof for all intents and purposes. Full ceramic from most other luxury brands are generally $10K and up. 43mm case so should be a good size for my wrist. Ordered it two-day from Jomashop, so it should be here well before the trip. Slightly worried about not having a manufacturer warranty, as it's a pretty pricey piece, but that's the chance you take getting a big discount from an online dealer. It's a $4100 watch from an AD, so I'll take my $1000 discount and my chances. So along with the privat...

MGM fucking with me again. Trying to dump rooms with 2 weeks to go, clearly. Could book the 6 nights at a $27 rate at Aria, less than $500 all in. Or Delano, NYNY or Vdara less than $400. Gah. Could save me over a grand. Could be at Encore for the same $$ as Conrad now too. Venetian $500 less. If I went with MGM props, I could be prudent and bank the extra $1K with the somewhat uncertain future RN, but I still don't want to give up the baller suite at the Conrad. The Encore suite is nice but I greatly prefer the resort at RW to the WynnCore complex. And I don't feel like I  have to scrimp, so unless that situation comes up (don't see how it could) I'll be at RW in 14 days. Plus none of the other props have the ROOM Conrad does. This thing has high ballerism to value quotient. Do I need it? No. I could get by with a 350 sq ft room and have on many occasions. Chances are extremely high no one but me is going to see it anyway. But I will see it, and appreciate it. And I c...

Things on track, generally. 2 /12 weeks to Vegas. No changes to anything trip-wise. MGM fucking with me. I could be at Delano again for less than $400 all in, but not going to bite. Sticking with posh. Work sitch unchanged but worrisome. As far as I know I still have a job after June, but my boss has gone quiet on me and it makes me nervous. I don't think he would pull the dick move of cutting me loose after the current contract is done, but if he does it's going to be unholy hell thrown at him. You can't tell someone their job is safe then pull that rug at the end. Going to try to corner him soon to get some surety. As it stands 2 Vegas trips and, you know, not being homeless depends on it. Not much out there in the job market, but I'm looking. Despite the slight uncertainty in the workplace, I've decided I need a new toy before the April trip. Getting a new watch. Took advantage of a 15-month 0% interest rate CC deal from my bank. Looking at either a ceramic Lon...

3 weeks out, starting to see things form up to final states. The last MGM Rewards points have dropped in, I'm over the 20K threshold, without having set foot in town, which would be great if I was actually TRYING to get the Gold this year. Whether I even make the effort will hinge on this trip, probably. If I do manage to drop some coin at MGM sites and get 10K in the bank there I might make an effort. Not going to bust my balls to do so though. The bigger plus I'm getting from the MGM CC now is all the Freeplay, of which I'll have nearly $200 going into town. That will be the main thing that will end up dragging my ass to Aria or Bellagio from the north strip. I'll cab all over the place anyway like I do to drink, but otherwise I'd probably be content to concentrate most of my gamble spend between RW and FB. Outside of those 3 not much else will likely make any money off of me this trip.  Also have a more or less final number of what will be in the wallet. After pa...