List<ExpandoObject> to Excel Export

I’m writing this to share a quick solution I implemented to solve a need on a small project. It works, but feels dirty. If you have a cleaner reco, PLEASE let me know. Handler: (My apologies for screenshots. Git Gists were not keeping the formatting when I selected c#)   Extension Method: HEADS UP This […]

What’s Bothering Me About This Birthday

Skip to post-birthday update As the eve of this major birthday approaches, I’ve been doing a lot of soul-searching lately I’ve been having a hard time pinpointing what is bothering me so much about it. Yes, everyone knows how disturbing it is in our society for a woman to turn 40. Fortunately I was never […]

Entity Framework 5.0 & Upgrading Project to FW 4.5

I was listening to a recent .NET Rocks with Julie Lerman on Entity Framework 5, and she was asked if EF5 worked with both .NET 4.5 and .NET 4.0. Around minute 26, she briefly mentioned it’s tricky because the dll that gets installed via NuGet is determined by the Target Framework the project is set […]

Entity Framework Circular References

One of the first issues I encountered returning serialized, nested (“deep”) entities using EF5 with the (MVC4) ASP.NET Web Api was the “Self Referencing loop” exception* For any property you don’t want exposed, make the Getter: Internal & Setter: Public. Doing this on the navigation properties that reference the parent that reference it will prevent […]

ASP.NET Web API: Always Set Content-Type

I lost a few hours on my project one night last week because of this. Backstory I have been really enjoying my latest project using Asp.NET Web API & EF5. Although I’ve had a bit of a (mostly EF) learning curve, it’s gone swimmingly, and I’ve been blown away at the parsing magic performed by […]

Git as an Environment Discovery Tool

I love discovering existing tools that can be used in new ways. This way to use git in a way I had not heard of is so badass (and by badass, I mean it’s going to save me an insane amount of time) that I have to shout it from the rooftops. Background I work for a marketing firm with many clients. […]

ThatConference 2012

Developer Parent As a working parent of two young children, it is not easy for me to attend conferences. Thankfully, I have an unbelievably supportive spouse, without which (as you know if you have kids & have voluntarily attended an OOT dev conf), the thought of attending a conference would not even be on the […]

Technology in Elementary School

From 6:30 to 8pm this evening, my daughters’ elementary school held their 1st annual Technology Night: Experience how we use technology in the classrooms. This is a hands on activity for the parents and students. Please come and visit classrooms at each grade level where you can see various methods of technology use. This thing […]

My Daughter’s First User Group Meeting

When I received this email yesterday from Todd Stone, who runs the Dallas .NET Micro User Group, I called my husband to ask for his support picking up our 5yo so I could take Katelyn, our 8yo, to this meeting: Agenda: Shawn Weisfeld will demo a robot he built with Robotics Studio and a Kinect […]

Meeting Influencers AKA the Starstuck Syndrome

If you’ve read some of my previous posts (like this one or this one or this one), you already know I exemplify, “You can’t spell Geek without ‘ee’.” Although I never understood worshipping “celebrities” (like the Hollywood kind), meeting someone in person whose work, efforts or brilliance have made a difference in my life or […]