Boys and girls, stretch those voting fingers.  Linda Harris found this baby in her spam folder 5 minutes before tonight’s commission meeting.

Decatur’s been nominated by Southern Living’s editors and “seasoned experts” for its “Tastiest Town Award” and the competition is FIERCE (see below).

Large metropolises like Houston and Baltimore made the list, along with already famous food meccas like Charleston and New Orleans. For a city of just 20,000, this is truly a case where it really is an honor just to be nominated.

But that doesn’t mean we’re going to take this online vote lying down, right?  Sheer population or regional reputation doesn’t account for everything when it comes to an online vote.  It’s all about passion (and online linkage).  So get ready, because we’re gonna give New Orleans and Charleston a run for their money.  Right Mr. Kessler?

Stay tuned for your first reminder about this vote on December 23rd.

Lisa writes in…

This very timid kitty showed up in our yard last night to sit by my husband’s fire. Don’t know if it’s male or female but it’s probably less than a year old. We live on Barry St and no one around here recognized him/her. Could you please post and see if any of your helpful readers may be the owners of this little one? Please email jrembert@mac.com any leads.

After over a month after it closed due to a rat infestation at the Pet’s Supermarket next door, Melton’s wrote this its Facebook page yesterday…

Update: We are fighting like crazy to get open before the New Year. It should be within a few days on either side of New Years’ Eve, with some variables being out of our control (holiday schedules, final inspections, etc). We will announce our solid re-opening date as soon as we know. Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Thanks to FMFats for the heads up!

Kristin writes in…

Hi! We’re taking the kids “gaudy gazing” tonight after dinner and wanted some info on what streets around Decatur are the most festive! I saw the post about Adair street on FFAF …… perhaps others would like more info as well? Thanks!

The property owners at 416 Eastland Drive live on a great invisible fissure of bureaucracy.

One parcel of their property falls within the boundaries of a city with a junkie’s obsession on the “walkable”, pushes its school system to be the best in the northern hemisphere and has weekly trash pickup.  The other side of their property sits in a unincorporated county that can’t keep its police officers happy, is recovering from a major Superintendent scandal, and has trash pickup twice a week.

Who wouldn’t want resolution?  Taxes inside of Decatur are confusing enough!  (Not to mention the thrice weekly trash pickup.)

The other, more important reason the owners of 416 Eastland are looking for Decatur to annex the DeKalb parcel is for clarity regarding access to the school system.  According to a letter to City Manager Peggy Merriss (page 15 of meeting materials PDF), Meisha and Vance Shofner say that they were originally told by the school system that their daughter could attend CSD.  But more recent maps on the school’s website no longer include 416 Eastland inside the CSD school zone.  The residents want full annexation so that school jurisdiction is totally clear.

DeKalb has raised no objection to the single parcel, .43 acre annexation.

The Decatur City Commission meets tonight to take up the issue as well as confirm the 2012 schedule for meeting.