Guacamole dip? Check.

Lots of ice cubes? Check.

Zoning police? Not yet, anyway.

On the afternoon before her house party in O'Hara, Cindy Harris was going over some details with Andy Cohen, the Memphis, Tenn., blues guitarist who was to perform Aug. 14 for about 40 guests.

Ms. Harris' plan was that, to get folks thinking more about music and less about a police raid, she and her daughter, Rebecca Heath, would perform "Right Next Door," a farcical song that a previous guest had written about Ms. Harris' dispute with the township over house parties.

"That was the song Kathy Moser wrote when she was in my living room for a house concert. She was entirely freaked out by the experience.

"It's a real good song for a laugh," Ms. Harris said, "and it's real pertinent if you listen to the lyrics."

For four years, township officials have banned the living room parties as commercial ventures because, they said, Ms. Harris charges money, doesn't provide adequate parking and promotes what amounts to a full calendar of events.

Ms. Harris denies all of the above. She said her guests make donations if they choose and that the promotion is nothing more than an e-mail list to friends.

The dispute has emerged as a freedom-of-assembly battle on two fronts.

There's the one in U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, where a mediation review has begun.

Then there was the one at Ms. Harris' front door Aug. 14, where things stood to get interesting had the police, a sheriff or a constable come calling to enforce a January 2006 cease-and-desist order.

Nobody wearing badges showed up, but Ms. Harris said she and her guests resented that they had to even consider the possibility of being shut down like some underage beer fest.

"Any point in time that could've happened. We literally look out the front window," said Ms. Harris, who's had four to eight house parties annually for 10 years.

"I've gotten a little more relaxed about it, but I still wonder. How crazy is that? You shouldn't have to worry about a cop coming to your house."

Ms. Harris and her husband, Rick Heath, have been hosting parties at their home on Fox Pointe Drive since 1997.

The legal troubles began in 2003 when an anonymous neighbor complained about overflow parking. The O'Hara zoning officer sent a letter informing the couple that the living room concerts were prohibited.

As a result, Ms. Harris said, she cut back on the parties, stopped mentioning them on her Web site and told guests not to block neighbors' driveways.

Things remained on low simmer until January 2006, when the township sent a second, more potent warning. The township said Ms. Harris had resumed promotion of four concerts for that year on another Web site.

The letter warned that "should these advertised concerts, or any other concerts occur, you will be in violation of the [2003] cease and desist order." Officials said the fine would be $500 per incident.

Ms. Harris has ignored the order and continued to hold her parties, the next being scheduled for October.

Township officials declined to comment, referring to the litigation filed by Ms. Harris and some supporters. They filed a civil rights suit in U.S. District Court last year, contending that the zoning action was unconstitutional because it amounted to prior restraint.

The court ruled in favor of the township, saying the case was "not ripe for review" since a penalty hadn't actually been imposed.

In November, Ms. Harris appealed to U.S. Circuit Court, where the case is being reviewed.

"There's 22 permitted uses in R-2 [two-unit residential areas], and house parties are not on their list. That was the township's interpretation," she said.

"But lots of things aren't on the list -- prayer meetings, political fund-raisers. ... It's a private party. Why should they be [on] a list?"

"The only way to enforce the order would be to have an officer knock on the door and ask what was going on," Ms. Harris said, which to her would be a violation of constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Mr. Cohen, a blues revivalist from Memphis, said he's played at plenty of house parties as well as club gigs and amphitheaters. He prefers the conversational intimacy afforded by living room venues such as Ms. Harris', he said, and the prospect of the local sheriff showing up in mid-chord doesn't bother him in the least.

"I'm an old civil rights guy. I marched at Selma. I actually spent a couple nights in jail. To me, the First Amendment is sacrosanct . . . that's how I feel about house concerts.

"If the zoning laws of a town have problems with me playing Peg Leg Sam [a blues musician who played harmonicas with his mouth and nose], I'll be happy to do it in front of the judge."

Stephanie Flom, executive director of the Laurie Ann West Memorial Library, was more measured in her praise. The concert raised about $325 for the O'Hara library's new building campaign.

It's not that she doesn't appreciate the donation, Ms. Flom said, but she would have liked to have been forewarned that the township had a problem with house parties.

"I wish I had known. But we said yes, and we're happy to be the beneficiary. At this point, we're not going to backtrack on that," she said.

"It's always a nice gesture to contribute to the library. At the same time, the township is an important partner in what we do. This one concert will come and go, but we don't want to be in the middle," she added. "We really can't be."

House parties have been touchy issues in other jurisdictions.

At a house in Scott, a party featuring a live rock band was held each year from 1998 through 2001, prompting at least one neighbor to complain.

The neighbor lived just across the line in Mt. Lebanon, so when he contacted Mt. Lebanon police, they said they couldn't do anything.

In the party's third year, Scott police promised to take action if the noise got too loud.

The host of the party even offered to pay for dinner and a movie for the neighbor so he could go out on the night of the annual event.

The situation was resolved when the host moved.