Looking back over 2016

With only 13 days to go this year, I guess its not too early to go back over the year.  Since I didn't do a Christmas family letter this year, you lucky blog readers get a special extra.  Thanks for being here.

Family wise, it was a year of transition.  Sarah graduated from UT Austin in May and so a lot of things revolved around that and her move to Madison WI.  In January and then June when she had vacation time, we went on 2 family vacations, first to Cancun Mexico and then to Fort Lauderdale, FL.

We had a lot of family come to Austin for the graduation as well and we had a nice celebratory lunch with Travis's family and friends.

I made sure that I didn't have to be involved in any moving to Madison, but I did go visit twice, in August for a week and then October for a weekend.

Susan continues to work hard and getting away is sometimes the only way around work.  Just the two of us, we went to Beaver Creek, CO, to South Padre Island in the summer weekends, and then to Las Vegas to see George Strait (her favorite).

Work for me continues to be of interest, and I'm getting better at it.  As a result I want to be more selective with new cases in 2017.  Larger, more complex matters are what I want to work on.  Smaller fish can go elsewhere.

A highlight was resolving a large Chapter 11 bankruptcy creditor case out of Plano TX  involving multiple liens claims and adversary proceedings in Pleasanton, Cotulla, Big Spring and Midland.

Also a large mediation involved a circumstance I had never experienced.  A case that had a mediation agreement that was not followed.

And preparing for a contested arbitration case that is set for hearing in January had been a lot of work and preparation.  No one but me in the office understands how to prepare a case for a trial.  Like I said I've been at this for 24 years and am getting better at it.  But it is still hard.

I took action to achieve progress toward my goal of visiting all 50 states.  New states I went to this year are:  Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota.

I also took action to play my 12 new golf courses.  That will be the subject of another post.   Good experiences in Austin, Laredo TX and Rochester MN

And 3 signficant actions happened:

My book Hideaway was published by me to good reviews.  "Kindle It!"

My movie Transient played in Los Angeles, New York and McAllen.  As executive producer, I was able to speak on stage after the McAllen premiere.

I have a professional golfer as a client and he has status on the Champions Tour PGA starting May 18, 2017.   We are working on getting sponsor exemptions for 2017, hopefully in Madison WI in June.

* Merry Christmas!