Cartagena Cartagena has to be one of the cooler places I've been to. The city has been around for centuries and has perhaps the narrowest streets that I've ever walked. The group of us stayed in an incredible house that literally had a pool of water running through it. You actually had to step on marble stones to walk from the front door towards the kitchen area. We took a few adventures around the town and pretty much kept ourselves drunk around the clock. Also, it turns out that Avianca is one of the best airlines I've ever had the pleasure of flying with.

Snowmobiling Winter Park As part of our ski trip this year, Eric thought it might be fun to go on a snowmobiling adventure around Winter Park. We took a one-hour guided tour of the area. We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to drive off on our own and really open the machines up, but it was still a nice tour of the area. True to our style, one of the snowmobiles broke down (and Dreux wasn't even around). It turns out that the guide forgot to gas up his own vehicle.

Synchronic: Neo-Urbanism I was so incredibly humbled to have been invited to speak at the most recent Synchronic series. A dear friend of mine named Felip Ballesteros was tasked with starting a new branch of GRCurrent - an incubator in Grand Rapids. The branch would go on to be called Synchronic. It was to run in a similar fashion to TED talks. About a month before my election ended, Felip called me up one day and asked if I would be willing to speak at the event. It was to take place just a week after the November 4th election and so I didn't have a great deal of time to prepare for it with everything else going on. While I certainly thought he could do way better than me, I'm never one to turn down a good opportunity. I managed to put together a 25-minute speech and presentation on the pre-selected topic of Neo-Urbanism. I had a fair amount of experience with the topic having served as an Austin City Commissioner to the Mueller Neighborhood - a neighborhood strictly built around the principles of Neo-Urbanism. The event wound up being completely sold out and the audience was spectacular. It was a wonderful experience and I loved meeting everyone.

The Purple Party As part of the Long Center's 7th anniversary party, they hired the Blue's Brothers for the evening and had a charity gala. Yes, that's the Blue's Brothers with Dan Akyroyd and Jim Belushi (of course originally John Belushi). My friend Karen was able to get me two extra tickets, one so I could get Roxanne in to see Carly, and one so that I could take Brooke. We showed up fashionably late, but my goal was to see Carly's last show, not so much the Blue's Brothers.

The Jaws Van This is perhaps one of the most amazing vans I have ever seen in my life. The guy who owns this van is apparently pretty good friends with one of my dearest friends. He was kind enough to give us a tour of the van. Even though it was near 30 years old it had a mere 14,000 miles on it. I would happily drive this piece of art.

Daniel Johnston at Mohawk Brooke and I went to see one of Austin's oldest pseudo-legends, Mr. Daniel Johnston. Although I didn't really care for most of his music, he is one of the more interesting musical characters I have ever come across. You may know him as the guy who painted the famous "Hi, How Are You?" frog on the drag.

2015 Floods Brooke and I were hanging out at her house when one of the largest storms of the decade came through Austin. My entire block went underwater and unfortunately many houses on the block, including one of my rental properties, was hit. We took care of everything pretty quickly, but it was a huge pain in the ass.

Kyloe Blue at One-2-One

Kyloe Blue at One-2-One (October)

New Forearm Tattoo The moment struck for me to get a new tattoo and so I got something that was meaningful to me on my inner right forearm. It's always there for me to see now - the convenience of the inner forearm. My tattoo artist, Mig, did this one just like the past one.