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Traditions have to start somewhere. One of my favorite traditions began in 2009 with a simple, spur-of-the-moment dinner invitation from our very close friends Steve and Tracy Nees. It’s a dinner we now do every year on the day after Christmas.

What makes this tradition special is that simple means getting back to the core of what a tradition is: great friends, lots of laughing and great food and drink.

The cooking, oh yes, the cooking: hearty, rustic dishes cooked in cast iron pots and pans placed over lava-orange coals in an open living room fireplace. The friends and laughing: animated and fueled by bottles of good red wine as the day turns from afternoon to early evening…and continues late into the night.

The menu for this year’s post-Christmas gathering included coq au vin, bison filet and collard greens. Liquid accompaniments included a bottle of one of my all-time favorite wines (Bogle Phantom), Dogfish Head’s My Antonia and warming nightcaps of Schonauer Apfel Schnapps and an organic pre-temperance alcoholic Root Tea.

It doesn’t take generations to establish a tradition. Sometimes all it takes is good friends, an open day on the calendar, and a desire to unplug from the hustle and bustle of our everyday to create a lasting memory.

For the second year in a row, we trucked out to the middle of a Delaware farmer’s field to watch teams launch pumpkins through the Fall sky. The field was ringed with contraptions powered by air, tension and torsion.

It was the torsion contraptions that we were most interested, as Team Chucky was once again vying for another world champion title. And they didn’t let their fans down — nor did they let their newfound celebrity go to their heads (they are to the Science Channel what Sig Hansen and his crew are to Deadliest Catch) — taking the top spots in the hotly-contested, Jack Daniels-fueled Torsion and Catapult categories.

Our tailgating crew gets larger each year, our spread more elaborate (big thanks to my dad for carting the keg of 16 Mile brew to the contest), our arrival earlier, and our departure later.

If you’ve never experienced Punkin Chunkin up close and personal rather than watching from a turkey-induced coma from your couch after a big Thanksgiving meal, make sure you don’t miss out next year…the more, the merrier (and if this year was any indication, Punkin Chunkin 2011 should be the merriest yet).

Late this afternoon will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the day my life changed forever. On September 23, 1995, I married a beautiful girl named Jennifer Anne Vreeland. Over the past 15 years, she’s not only become a beautiful woman, but also a wonderful wife, a trusted friend, and a loving and caring mother.

To honor the life we’ve shared over the past decade and a half, I thought I’d share a few of the memories we’ve made together. So enjoy while I take a stroll down memory avenue and recall the time…

1. We said “I do.”
2. We bought our first house.
3. We met new friends.
4. We traveled to fun places.
5. We had a daughter.
6. We watched her grow up.
7. We had another daughter.
8. We watched her grow up.
9. We endured heartbreak and loss of loved ones.
10. We enjoyed the company of family.
11. We moved into a new home.
12. We met new friends.
13. We still had fun.
14. We lived.
15. We loved.

I love the life we’ve lived over the past 15 years and look forward to the memories we’ll add over the next 15.

March is unquestionably the greatest month of the year. It’s the month of my birthday (March 4…big presents, please) and also the month when the annual South by Southwest Interactive/Film/Music Festival rolls into Austin.

SXSW 2011 stands to be one of the best festivals yet…primarily because panel ideas submitted by three of my colleagues and I made it through the latest round of voting. Okay, to be honest, the festival would be great anyway, but why settle for great when awesome is so much better?

All it takes is a few clicks to cast your vote for four panels that are sure to entertain and educate (one of which may involve screaming and flying vegetables). Voting ends at midnight tonight. Please cast your vote now!

[ted id=477]

Sadly, I was not on that list. Perhaps I didn’t make the cut because ManeyDigital doesn’t focus on “technical communication.” Perhaps my omission was because, frankly, I’m not that influential. Or, as I really suspect, I was left off the list because Mark Fidelman and Aaron Fulkerson are threatened by my insane good looks, sharp wit and even sharper wardrobe.

Yeah, I’m sure it’s that last reason.

* If you aren’t following Mark Fidelman yet, do so now.

I never got the chance to see them in concert while I was growing up. But that changed this past Wednesday when I saw them perform songs old and new at the Susquehanna Arts Center in Camden, NJ. And they didn’t disappoint — performing the 30-year-old Moving Pictures start to finish in their second set.

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