Nora, are you near your phone? Choosing between text and email right now...

I am near my phone. Am currently upstairs hoping this headache goes away soon. We'll see if some Kindle useage aggravates it...

To give evil neighbor "credit", he sees buying the house cheap as a lovely side benefit of getting rid of people who may not share the same family values as the rest of the neighborhood, ie, we're not LDS. But even these asshats know better than to say that in anything resembling a legal setting.

Ginger that is awful. If you were not going through the whole fighting cancer right now, I'd suggest appealing. As it is, I can only echo those who say "appeal if you have the energy". Do you have a friend or neighbor who do the heavy lifting in an appeal - basically, photos, filling out forms. Depending on regs, you still might actually have to show up for a hearing. I some jurisdictions you can file a preliminary appeal this sort of thing on paper, depends on rules of your state and municipality. Finding out procedure is also something a friend or neighbor could do for you. Actually since that part can be done by phone, email me your physical address, and look on the notice to tell me if it was city, county or special district, and I can at least look into the appeal procedures.

Gray cats and disappearing acts: when I lost my cat Ivan - I believe it was an I opened the door, he went by in a flash (or possibly teleported out) and I was so tired I didn't notice and then didn't realize 'til the next day.

I'm so sorry, sumi! Leo got out the last time I went away for a few days and I didn't realize it until my neighbor called me. They'd found him sitting on their porch, waiting for them to take him home. Which baffles me, because he doesn't KNOW them. How did he know to go there? It also scared the fuck out of me, of course, because he was outside for hours. He got bit in the leg by something, too, and was sick and limping and needed ABs for days. So I'm fencing in the porch so he can't slip by me and be gone again. No matter how careful we are, we can't be careful enough - cats are just too slippery.

And Gray Cat did it again. I let him out at 10pm last night and went to bed. I woke up at 5:30am and heard a meow, and I thought, that sounds like Gray Cat, but it can't be, and then he jumped up on the bed and lo, it was indeed Gray Cat. I remembered that I'd gotten up again at 1:30 and stepped outside on the porch because I'd thought I heard a cat yowling (the porch is underneath my bedroom window) but there was no cat. So, again, he must have run inside then when I opened the door, but I'm damned if I saw him. All day today I've been paying real close attention as I go in and out, but I'm nearly convinced the cat can teleport himself inside.

Ginger,

are you near a college or university? this sounds like something an advanced undergrad or graduate student would love to tackle for a small fee.

Again I could at least call the government body for you and find out the procedure. Even if you decide to hire somebody, knowing what needs to be done will make it easier to get a bid.

My old neighborhood loved to give citations regularly. I usually could clear it up with a phone call. Of course all areas are different.

Thanks, everyone. Right now, it's a warning and they come back in 10 days. My current plan is to spread the bags of mulch that I agree have been there too long and pick up a few things, then see what happens. I have a desire add large labels that say "Not a Weed."

They make very pretty garden labels you can stick next to plants to identify them.