Well, we're back at the top of the month again, and this time around for Meme Monday we're to talk about what we'd love to see under the tree from Microsoft. This got my creative juices flowing, and I came up three wishes: First and foremost, if I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be that all …

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The DBA is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green Integration Services tasks: he leadeth me beside the still SSDs. He restoreth my filegroups: he leadeth me in the paths of MS best practices for his sanity's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of joins, I will fear no …

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As a follow-up to my previous post about the steps you may have to go through to attend training if your employer can't or won't offer assistance in the form of either money or time off, I have a story of my own to tell. I was unhappy at my previous place of work for several reasons, a few of which I've blogged about …

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In honor of today being the last day to get the special preview rate for the 2012 PASS Summit, I thought I'd offer some tips on negotiating with your boss for money to attend such a conference or training event. For more info about registration, click here. Keeping up to date in the technology world is a journey, not a …

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This month brings us the 24th edition of T-SQL Tuesday (24 already? wow….). This time around our topic comes from Brad Schulz (blog) and has to do with stored procedures and functions. Brad's asking us to write whatever we'd like about either of them. While from the bird's-eye view both functions (the table-valued …

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This is the second time I've participated in the "Meme Monday" blog events that have been brought to us by Tom LaRock (blog | @SQLRockstar). The topic is on what "SQL Family" means to us. A few things popped into my head as soon as I read it, and I'm happy to share them: First and foremost SQLFamily …

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After my trek to Iowa City last year for SQL Saturday #50, I knew I'd have to travel to more out-of-town SQL Saturdays in the future. Unfortunately I couldn't make it back to Iowa City this year, but I was very happy when I found I would be able to travel to Kansas City this time around for SQL Saturday #101. This is …

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Have you ever had one of those times where you spent hours trying different ways to make something work the way you envisioned, only to find that the solution was staring you in the face all along? I have those more often than I'd like to admit – and while the title of this post seems like a DBA 101 topic, the answer …

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I'm very happy to have been chosen to speak at SQL Saturday #101 in Kansas City on October 29th. Those responsible for planning have put together an excellent schedule with a great group of speakers that I'm proud to be among! I'll be presenting 2 sessions that day: Backups and Recovery In Depth takes a good look at …

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This month's T-SQL Tuesday topic comes to us courtesy of Stuart Ainsworth (blog | @codegumbo), and is early due to the PASS Summit being next week. Perhaps those planning next year's summit will do a better job to make sure they don't interfere with any blogging parties :) Stuart's topic for the month is joins, and …

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