Boston

Mrs. Blogger and I went for an overnight stay in Boston Saturday night. No, I didn't pogo-stick up there (see prior post). My brother's birthday is coming up next week so we met him and his wife along another brother and his wife for a night in Boston. We stayed at a very nice hotel right in the heart of Boston, had a great dinner and saw Tracy Morgan's stand-up routine at Fanuel Hall. I did drink quite a bit Saturday into Saturday night and Tracy Morgan didn't come on stage until close to 11:30 so I could barely keep my eyes open. Morgan's comedy is very dirty and I found him mildly funny. The warm-up comedian/MC was actually funnier, but a good time was had by all (most of my memory gaps after 10 p.m have been filled in to date).

But the cost! Oh my God. Even though I have the discipline to stay away from the $6 Bud Lite can and $5.75 Nestle Crunch Bars in the mini-bar/fridge, it was still a "holy crap that's expensive" type of weekend. The Hyatt even has sensors on the candy bars in the fridge. Sensors! I hadn't run across that before. Its not gold bullion it a Snicker's Bar for crying out loud. With such stringent candy security, I imagine the Hersheys factory to be surrounded by armed guards in towers and razor wire. Although we dreamt up an Indiana Jones-type swap by replacing the candy bar with a sock full of soap we decided against the caper and let the snacks be.

Its not that I wasn't prepared for it to be an expensive weekend, but damn! Amazing how those fun little ideas can really go into cost overrun. Big City life and the cost of living are out of sight. I'm flying to Vegas and staying for 3 nights for about what I just spent. Don't get me wrong, I don't consider myself cheap or even frugal, but when I got home yesterday I couldn't help but think of the cool stuff I could have bought or done with that much money. AND we got a deal on the hotel and split the room.

Itemization of money that left my pocket for myself in Mrs. Blogger (I might be forgetting something too)......

Gas....1/2 tank....$20 (round trip - I'm exactly 90 miles from Boston)
Tolls....$3.65
Lunch on way up.....$12 (Burger King Rest stop)
Beer for room.....$16
Hotel Room.....$90 (some kind of online deal or something....it was normally a $270 room)
Taxi to dinner.......$10 (including tip)
Dinner and drinks.....$120
Taxi to show......No charge (someone else picked up tab)
Tickets to show......$74
Two rounds of drinks prior to show......$56 (what I paid for - we had more than two rounds total)
Taxi back to hotel....$8 (not sure why it was less - perhaps they took the scenic route on way over)
[the next morning]
Incredibly warm soda machine Gator-Ade and Iced Tea...$3
Room tip.....$7
Breakfast buffet ...... $47 (not at ALL worth that!! $5 for a bagel if ala carte!)
Overnight Parking.....$26

Total......$492.65!!!

Me, retelling a story Sunday morning that I apparently had regaled my companions with the night before and wife reminding me of a few other conversations that had slipped my mind? Priceless!