Team Cool & Tough leaves for the annual Vegas trip today. It is officially safe to say that the Eastern Seaboard will be represented by a few more STDs and a little less cash flow this time next week.

It’s also safe to say that there will be no updates or new columns for about a week seeing that no one on the NextRound team was a big enough tool to forgo the Vegas trip in the name of Breaking News.

But here’s the good news: once we get back and are close to 25% normal brain capacity (roughly, Wednesday the 14th) we’ll have some updated stories from Vegas and also be introducing a new “bloggish” layout for dudenation which should make it exponentially more awesome. Look for increased daily posts and as much stupid shit from us as you lightweights can handle.

It’s officially less than a month until Team Cool & Tough ventures into the desert for our annual long weekend of debauchery.

We manage to leave a little bit of ourselves–dignity, self respect, liver capacity, etc.–in Vegas every year, and the recuperation time is definitely a couple of days longer than it used to be, and it’s really only a matter of time before one of us gets canned from our day job for “complete and utter incompetence and incoherence” the week after our Vegas trip. But we keep going back. Why?

Because It’s Totally Worth It.

And I’m not talking about the whole “What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” deal. That’s played out anyway. Because who’s kidding who? Guys who cheat on their wives and dial up hookers, cheat on their wives and dial up hookers whether they’re in Vegas or Minneapolis.

Instead, trips to Vegas are totally worth it because they are like a visit to some foreign bizarro world. Open containers are encouraged. Degenerates are the norm. Walking out of a casino and realizing it’s daylight is something you become accustomed to. You drink Vodka tonics at 9 AM and Bloody Mary’s at 6 PM without blinking an eye. Sequences of events that would end with tasers and handcuffs back home go down in Vegas without consequence. Shit gets weird.

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