I agree that you should call the landlord and police. However, in order to document the nuisance even more effectively, you should write the landlord after a reasonable number of calls, listing the date and time of every single incident and follow up call to the landlord. You should also, if you can, use a camcorder or cellphone to get a live action video (date stamped) showing "Dude" in his full glory. Landlords who rent mostly to students can get very jaded, assuming that students will put up with anything and that neighbors aren't worth the time and effort to assuage. There is a good chance that you will have to be a really squeaky wheel to get any attention. Also, find a copy of your local or state code on motor vehicles and see if you can get some action from motor vehicle enforcement -- for instance, a car without a current inspection in many locations may not be stored in the open without some additional permit related to either the place (like a garage) or the intent of the owner to return the car to working order in a reasonable period of time.

I've known all kinds of women (and men) who held out hope for meeting someone who reflected ideals that they could not possibly have aspired to themselves -- the couch potato who dreams about a brawny athlete, or the geek who meets and marries the bubbly beauty queen. LW's plight brings to mind the Seinfeld episodes in which Jerry finally meets his soul mate, a girl just like him -- and then freaks out at the prospect of having to spend eternity with a copy of himself. I think LW needs to ask herself why she thinks that her perfect mate is essentially just a reflection of what she likes most about her own personality. Why? Has she actually ever really liked any man at all, even as a good friend, who had those traits? Did her father or brother share those traits?

And the rule is that if you fail to RSVP to an invitation by a certain date the host should call and inquire whether the invitation was lost in the mail. It goes something like, "I'm trying to get a final headcount and I see here that we didn't get a reply from you and we so want you there, and then I thought, perhaps you didn't get the invitation! Quelle horreur!" If the person above whose invitation was misdirected had done this his friendship would not have suffered. If LW isn't comfortable that her friend will not carry out this procedure as prescribed in etiquette books, she should do what Cary suggested.

It's the daughter's wedding. Well yeah, of course, and depending on the finances involved the daughter might cut back her mother's wish list of invitees. As with many things, however, who is most affected by the event and who pulls the strings are not necessarily in harmony. I have two weddings to which I was not invited as examples:

My cousin's bride, an incredibly lovely woman, ended up not inviting me or my siblings to the wedding (her fiance's ONLY extended family) because her parents demanded that it be held in "their" country club, with its limited facilities, and then freaked at the prospect of excluding any of their friends, most of whom were just business associates. My aunt was still apologizing practically up until the day she died. And then we were not invited to the wedding of my husband's cousin until my mother in law declined the invitation and the bride's MOTHER called and asked if they would attend if we were invited. A positive response resulted in an invitation to one of the nicest events of its kind I have ever attended. The guest list had clearly been limited for reasons of expense, and I sent a much larger than necessary present when I realized the circumstances. I don't relish the prospect of crashing someone's wedding.

If the mother were truly out of the loop she would explain the situation. The fact that no explanation is forthcoming suggests that something is indeed amiss, either with the mail or with the friendship.