Ornery neighbors

[Gsgeorge]

What is the DYes consensus on dealing with ornery neighbors? Let me tell you about a little problem we have in our neighborhood -- hopefully you guys will have some ideas on how to take care of this.

My house is between the block, built on the alleyway, and we have a balcony that faces our side yard and a few other houses. 10:30 PM last night, two friends and I are hanging out on my balcony. All of sudden, out comes our ornery neighbor -- who we've had "noise complaints" from in the past, nothing official, but a lot of complaining about us talking on the porch past dark. She says the "acoustics" are such that she can "hear every word" and that "we're welcome to come out on the porch if we keep our voices down." Well, now! I tell her to mind her own BS, that we're out here for maybe ten minutes at the most and then heading back inside, and anyway it's a Saturday night and it's MY porch, so you can't exactly tell me how to act out here. Then she accuses us of being "raucous students" -- unlike those responsible, "real people" with "real jobs"... Well I was sorry to break the news that both my roomate & I are graduated and working legitimate jobs in the city & actually CONTRIBUTING something, unlike those "oh-so-raucous" students that seem to be moving in lately.... Puh-lease. She "thanked" us with the most sarcasm she possibly could muster, and then let her dogs run around the yard for a bit, yapping, until she hobbled back inside to work on her witches brew & fume about who-knows-what.

Oh, brother. First off -- we were talking at normal tones. 10:30PM on Saturday is hardly the quietest hour of the day in Detroit. Also we're on our own property, and there's nothing I can personally do about her "acoustics".

The real kicker is that she has about seven little rat-dogs that come out in her yard at 7AM-8AM every morning, yapping up a storm, and we haven't complained about that at all.

So now that I've vented a little -- what to do, DYes? Is there some clever, not malicious, MacGyver type way to get back at her and keep her at bay?

What is your experience with ornery neighbors in the D?