bloom day 1 Comment

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day: May 2017

Tulip ‘Angelique,’ the tree peony, the earliest red herbaceous peonies, and the dogwood blooms have all faded. Now my Zone 6 garden is preparing for the next wave of awesomeness.

Starting along the front fence, where passersby are most likely to enjoy the view for a few seconds as they speed past…

The Amur Honeysuckle is in bloom and throwing a magnificent scent.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: May 2017

The herbaceous peonies have been ready to pop for a couple of weeks, it seems.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day: May 2017

The front fence used to be more festive in the spring, until one landscaper a couple years back thought my oriental poppies looked like broadleaf weeds and nuked them with Round-Up, and overmulched my Siberian Irises such that most of them didn’t make it. The ones that did make it got weed-whacked by our lawn guys earlier this spring; apparently, they looked like grass to someone.

Chalk it up to life experience, and the knowledge that gardens are mutable and ever-changing, anyway. Moving on…  Continue reading →

family, parenthood Leave a comment

Mother’s Day Weekend

Mother’s Day Weekend was nothing out of the ordinary, but still pretty awesome.

We played outside and enjoyed the weather…

Connor and Dad played in the back yardConnor and I chilled with drinks in the front yard

Connor let me sleep in for an entire extra hour on Sunday morning before waking me up to give me my Mother’s Day gift and an awesome card…

Dad and Connor got me a new three-tier plant stand

We ate lunch at a new Szechuan (Chinese) restaurant…

Connor loved the green onion pancake and our entrees

…and I put my Mother’s Day gift into service.

Mei Kitty had to inspect the plant stand

We brought home so many leftovers that Chinese lunch became Chinese dinner, as well — which meant I didn’t even have to cook dinner on Mother’s Day. Bonus!

Even though it wasn’t super fancy — we didn’t do brunch, I didn’t get a Mother’s Day carnation or rose or anything, and I still had to do laundry because it was Sunday — this was quite possibly the best Mother’s Day yet. It just felt right: laid-back, with awesome weather, and the perfect balance of normal and special.

Life is good.

the ongoing saga of my job 1 Comment

This Is What I Do

Dashboard Sketches

I both live for and dread the beginning of a project.

It’s my favorite part because I get to do what I do best: arrange data into meaningful and useful tools for end users. It’s my least favorite because I rarely feel like I’m going into the design phase with enough information about the process I’m supposed to be improving. What will this tool be used for, and by whom? How do they do it now?

I’ve been trying to expand my skills in data visualization and analysis lately, so this project I’m working on now is more frustrating to me than usual. First, I’ve finally realized that the way our development process works is not conducive to properly sitting with the data like actual dataviz people do — but, to be fair, I’m not actually in data visualization. I’m in the Data Warehouse, and I design dashboards. I’m not making infographics for the Wall Street Journal; I’m making enterprise dashboards for my company.

(And, no, they’re not the NCC-1701-D type, either. Enterprise just means company-wide in this context.)

Anyway.

I guess one of the most frustrating things is that I’m learning all about these visualization and dashboarding tools that other companies use, but we don’t. I’ve learned to bend SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) to my will as much as I can, but it’s still not a dashboarding or data exploration tool. It’s for reporting, period.

They say that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To me, that’s true, to an extent… except I’m also trying to figure out non-standard ways to wield the hammer.

There’s also the small issue of the reporting audience. I could suggest a bullet graph, maybe even get the stakeholders to agree to it… but unless it was accompanied with text on how to interpret it, I’m not sure it would fly. I’m supposed to be creating visuals that help people do their jobs better, and in my mind, that’s best served by providing (and enhancing) visualizations they’re already familiar with… even if an unfamiliar one would be more efficient.

It’s such a delicate balance.

So, yeah. I love this part… and I hate this part.