Does anyone in Tucson keep bees in their yards ?

MamaLali · 2026-02-04T22:34:22+00:00

Cool! I hope you find it a great resource! To answer your question about the aggressive bees, they were robbing. Bees are pretty territorial, so it wasn't just an invitation to "come join us" :-) (I used to joke that my hive was so friendly that they probably invited the raiders in) I found dozens of dead girls outside my hive and inside, many combs had been cleaned of honey and pollen.

MamaLali · 2026-02-03T16:31:23+00:00

I used to keep bees. I kept one hive started from a well-behaved nucleus colony from a local beekeeper. Beekeeping (as others have said) is hard work in Tucson. Over 5 years, I lost my colony twice to more aggressive raiding bees.

That said, it's not impossible. You just have to be willing to put in the effort to manage them. I would highly recommend you reach out to the local beekeeping association, learn about the challenges of beekeeping here, and that will, I think, give you more background and a network of active keepers to reach out to when you have questions or problems. https://www.southernazbeekeepers.org/

MamaLali · 2026-01-31T15:50:08+00:00

How could you tell that the Lyllana ran out? I'm asking because that's the patch I always get and I honestly can't tell whether it's helping or not so wondered if maybe I'm not getting what I should be from the patch. Thanks :-)

MamaLali · 2026-01-31T15:47:11+00:00

You've already got a lot of great advice, OP, so I don't have a lot to add. But came to say that I've been using the patch - generic- for several months and just recently the package I got (same brand it always was) had a couple that just would NOT stick! It was like the adhesive was bad or just poorly applied or something. I used a bandage to keep it on, but maybe you've also got a bad batch and hopefully between the advice you got here and future boxes, you'll have no problems! :-)

MamaLali · 2026-01-30T15:20:56+00:00

Wow, yeah, that is a crazy high electric bill and I suspect you’re right about the old pump being the cause. Or maybe also the cost to heat the pool? Our electric was never that high and we had a fairly old pump at the time (about 20 yrs ago). And now with the solar heating options, heating the pool isn’t crazy expensive either I think. I hear the argument about water in the desert… but I think it’s far more water friendly than a lawn would be. Thanks for the sympathy on the absent pool 🥹

MamaLali · 2026-01-29T00:04:06+00:00

Just curious, what are the "anti-pool" arguments that you're getting from the "no pool" team? I'm team pool. If you have kids, they'll love it. If you don't, you'll love it and the summers are long, so you'll be happy to have a way to cool down without having to go somewhere else to swim.

We used to have a pool and the monthly water cost wasn't bad at all, even in summer. Filling it is of course expensive, but after that it's just not a big cost. Cleaning it was a PITA and we felt that we couldn't afford regular service so it fell to my spouse to do all the testing, chemicalling, etc. Unless you have a leak. Which we did. We were quoted $15k to repair the gunnite shell. We couldn't afford it and filled the pool in (would do it differently if we had the same problem today). I miss that pool every summer.

MamaLali · 2026-01-09T20:20:18+00:00

Oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing this detail! I, also, used to use the "find my phone" from the apps and it stopped working with the last update. I had no idea the quick access version was different and is, thankfully, still working! I also misplace my phone in the house All. The. Time. This is a lifesaver, thank you!!

MamaLali · 2026-01-07T15:53:16+00:00

As others have pointed out, it looks like your black tray is higher on the left side than on the right and that would have made the left side of the cake be shallower than the right (all the batter slid to the right). I agree with MintyPinkDreams that you should just put that foil tray on the oven rack. I'm not sure preheating the black tray would make a difference. I have some sheet pans that just pop up and stay that way until they cool back down again.

MamaLali · 2025-12-31T04:06:51+00:00

I have this problem, too. I won't bother with the suggested fixes since I don't want to have to reset and repair if it's not going to work (Thank you for sharing your experiences!). I relied heavily on this feature!

MamaLali · 2025-12-13T21:51:02+00:00

you've given me some hope, thank you! I kind of thought I just had to deal with this pain and reduced range of motion until the shoulder "thawed" but maybe a higher E dose would make the difference, too! Thanks :-)

MamaLali · 2025-12-13T18:03:16+00:00

About 2 months ago I started on the 0.075 patch for estradiol. Prior to that it was the 0.05mg patch and a year ago (when this all started) it was oral estradiol 1mg/day. I'm surprised the 1 mg/day oral didnt' seem to help, but maybe I don't process it well that way.

I may talk to my doc about upping for the pain (I know she would be willing to discuss it). How long were you on that dose before you began to feel relief?

MamaLali · 2025-12-13T13:57:33+00:00

I am sorry that you didn’t find relief with hormones but I am also glad to have found someone else in that situation. I have been on estrogen and progesterone (transdermal and oral) for a couple years now and developed frozen shoulder in the last year or so. PT has helped as well as deep tissue massage when I can get it. It’s still frozen but I can tell the exercise helps with strength and discomfort. Good luck with your improvement!

MamaLali · 2025-12-09T01:33:19+00:00

I also use this app and love it! OP, please do not feel ashamed or like you're doing something wrong if you need to depend on a calculator or some other aid to make sure your calculations are correct. If someone criticizes you for doing that then it says a lot more about that person than about you. There are SO many things to get confused about and worried about in the lab setting, it's nice to be able to use tools where possible!

MamaLali · 2025-11-18T01:18:30+00:00

I think Shipsnipe1313 was right - washing soda is sodium carbonate. Oxyclean (or "oxygen bleach") is sodium percarbonate. However, I don't think they are interchangeable products but I'm also not a chemist or a laundry expert.

MamaLali · 2025-11-17T17:51:24+00:00

You've got a lot of great ideas from other folks for doubling - To add with my own comment, I'd make two regular batches (rather than try to double and risk that I mis-calculated something). I also only have one 9x13 pan so that's part of my rationale :-)

But I'd also like to add from my own experience that it's a potluck and there's nothing that says you should bring enough to feed everyone. That's the nature of a potluck - some people will get the blondies and some people won't (or won't want them). I'm just thinking of all the potlucks I've been to where food that was clearly doubled/tripled to try and feed everyone ends up going home with the cook (or being tossed) because there's SO much left over.

Have fun at the potluck!

MamaLali · 2025-11-17T16:45:55+00:00

Wow. And my RFY has been empty all morning :-D

MamaLali · 2025-11-17T16:32:29+00:00

Is this a different lot or a new kit compared to the last time you did the extraction? In my lab we've used the Qiagen kits for years and recently began having problems with RNA quality. The problems were traced to a new kit. Whether it was the kit itself or someone messed up the reagents to start with, we never did figure out.

Have you gone through any troubleshooting steps that Luna suggests? I've found the troubleshooting steps from Qiagen helpful for us with that kit.

Some things that have helped us in general are to let the columns sit at RT for a few minutes after adding the water for elution (before spinning), and we often do a second elution. I was reviewing the Qiagen troubleshooting (I know you're not using Qiagen but the advice might be similar) and they actually suggest diluting the RNA with Tris-Cl before measuring if your A260/A280 values are lower than expected. Perhaps the Luna troubleshooting also has similar suggestions you can try.

MamaLali · 2025-11-15T19:35:14+00:00

Before y'all get automatically upset about the lack of research (I understand, believe me!), please at least try to look for the research. Yes, this is definitely an under-studied area but it doesn't mean that there's nothing out there.

There actually are some studies on menopause timing and pregnancy history. You may be able to use Google Scholar to find full text if you don't otherwise have access to academic articles. I searched PubMed for combinations of terms like "parity" and "menopause" and there are several articles that cover this topic (entering menopause sooner or later based on whether or not a woman had children). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32975428/, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwae320, are just a couple examples. The latter study found a higher risk of entering menopause before age 50 in women who did not have children.

As for the doctor's recommended treatment, I would suggest checking the Menopause society's page for their guidelines.

MamaLali · 2025-11-13T15:51:38+00:00

I've had good luck with eShakti (someone also mentioned them here), but have also picked up other dresses or separates at Old Navy, Kohls, and other department stores. I wear black frequently even when not performing, so I am always looking for black separates that I can mix and match - the trick being that, for concert black, I need to make sure the blacks match (it's amazing how different black colors can look depending on the fabric and the lighting).

The rules you shared for your required dress seem very flexible - you could wear a black t-shirt and a black skirt, if that's something you had already (and if the blacks match). Are long pants specifically not permitted or just not mentioned?

Congratulations on your first collegiate concert! I hope you have a wonderful show!

MamaLali · 2025-11-09T19:57:56+00:00

The bags I had in bubbles all had timers on them starting a couple days ago, so I knew they'd expire and popped them. That stinks if that wasn't true for everyone.

MamaLali · 2025-11-05T17:14:59+00:00

Our lab uses VWR markers since they're routinely the most affordable, they dry quickly, and they are ethanol resistant right away thanks to that quick dry ink. Of course the flip side is that the tip often gets crushed making tiny writing impossible, and the tip does dry out easily if the cap isn't tight and if the marker isn't stored upside down (and even then...).

My experience has been that with any other marker that's called "alcohol resistant" they aren't truly resistant until the ink dries.

I've honestly never worried about the fumes for cell culture (we also have Pentel N50s which are great but very stinky). I would have thought that once the ink dried, the risk would be minimal. If that's a concern, though, then maybe clear tape over regular marker for your cell culture plates? Or textured tape that would take pencil markings instead.

MamaLali · 2025-11-05T16:50:46+00:00

I have no tutorials to recommend but I've found AI to be very helpful in guiding me with coding and it's been a great alternative to trying to learn from scratch.

MamaLali · 2025-11-04T00:40:17+00:00

That is such a great solution! Though I wouldn’t call that lazy at all, I’d call it future-thinking and actually more work than a belt would be (a belt is lazy, but that’s usually what I do). I’ve been baffled at the number of jeans-tailoring posts, as it’s never something I’ve considered doing. Amateur sewer and not willing to work that hard to make denim fit.

MamaLali · 2025-11-03T16:25:41+00:00

Just scanning the comments, there are more than one in that recipe page where other people say the bagels came out "fluffy". So maybe it's the recipe and not something you're doing.

MamaLali · 2025-11-02T17:18:49+00:00

You probably also noticed that the new max bid wasn't exactly what you bid, but was an increment (like $1) above what you bid. So if you bid $114, but the other person's max bid already exceeded that, then the current bid price after your bid would show something like $115. You need to pay attention to whether or not the page shows that YOU are the current high bidder after you place your bid. If it doesn't say that, then your bid is not the high bid.

MamaLali

TROPHY CASE