Monday began with a wonderful phone call with my friend Jeff George who is a guitar professor at LSU.  We scheduled a call to talk about building high school guitar programs in LaFayette.  At lunch Monday I met with John Henry McDonald (my board vice-president who I often mention here) and the dynamic and incredible Helena Escalante who owns “All Things Mexico” – a consulting company that helps companies, both American and Mexican, expand internationally.  What a lunch!

Tuesday began with a conference call with Boston guitarists Zaira Meneses and David Patterson who are collaborating with Eliot Fisk, NEC and Longy School in Cambridge to bring me up in February to do a few days of lectures and workshops on nonprof stuff.  So exciting!  We talked a bit about the particulars and promotional ideas.

Today’s highlight was meeting with author, entrepreneur, and amazing mind Steve Guengerich for lunch at South Congress Cafe.  Steve and I could have blabbed for four more hours without taking a breath I think.  He has amazing experience from his years in what he calls “high-velocity start-ups” to his experience in some of the largest consulting companies, to his extensive work in the nonprof arena.  We were introduced by our mutual friend and general dynamo Eugene Sepulveda.  Thank you Eugene!

And I wanted to share photos from Sunday night’s Austin Dancing with the Stars gala at the Hilton downtown that was a benefit for the Austin Center for Child Protection.  As it turns out our host, and celebrity dancer, Charmaine McGill, was the winner!  Yay Charmaine, we’re incredibly proud of you!

Glenda and I in front of the gorgeous tree in the VIP reception before the program!

David Asaraff - the guy from "The Secret" and other motivational stuff? He was an emcee!

After the show, all the dancers came out before they announced the finalists.

Charmaine won! You can kind of see her in the gaggle there, and you can definitely see the Mirror Ball trophy glinting!

Here's the Mirror Ball Trophy up close!

It was a nice night.  We are incredibly proud of Charmaine and all the effort she – and all the dancers – put into learning their routines.  The tree above reminded me that Glenda and I have put up and decorated our own little tree at home!  here she is sitting in front of it on Tuesday night!

Christmas Time!