FROM OUR HOUSE TO CAL HEIGHTS: Reader Betty Day has about had a bellyful of our harkening back to yester-rock. "Enough already with the articles on rock stars," she pleads. "Let's get back to the funny stuff about the Cop Across the Street and your dog Jimmy."

Well, we haven't much to report. Last time we checked one was in the driveway "grooming" himself and the other was running around in our backyard chasing squirrels.

Our backyard, now that we've stumbled onto the subject, looks wonderful these days. The landscaping designed and installed by former councilman and future mayor Mike Donelon, has grown plush with fancy grass from the faraway island paradise of Bermuda. There are also plenty of dazzling and autumnal patches of gold in the lawn, thanks to either Jimmy or the Cop Across the Street.

Only our fierce sense of privacy keeps our backyard, with its rustic wood and corrugated tin Barn and stunning array of wildlife ranging from rats all the way down to mice, off the annual home and garden tours.

Some people are more generous with their homes and yards, and few are more generous than those who open up their houses and gardens each year for the Cal Heights Home & Garden Tour, the 12th edition of which is happening Sunday from 11 a.m. till 4 p.m. in the neighborhood Sunset magazine called Best of the West in 2004, and it's only gone uphill since.

This year's tour takes in five Spanish-style bungalow homes, three gardens

and an array of antique autos tossed about for the sake of verisimilitude, a word for which we get paid an extra 25 cents every time we use it. Good word, verisimilitude.

Show up an hour early (10 a.m.) to the tour's blast-off point, the Longfellow Elementary auditorium at 3800 Olive Ave., and listen to the swami of bungalows, Jane Powell, talk about what she knows best (bungalows). Doubt Powell's expertise at your peril: She's written such books as "Bungalow Baths" and "Bungalow Kitchens." You're going, "Did she write the Beatles' song `The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill'?" and that's why you're not paid to be a columnist. Verisimilitude, little friend. Verisimilitude.

In addition to dropping in on people's homes and gardens, visitors will be treated to live music, light refreshment and discounts to local restaurants.

Tourists are advised to wear flat, soft-soled shoes, and to refrain from interior photography.

If you get on the ball, you can buy advance tickets at www.calheights.org at $20. Tickets, at $25, are also available on Sunday at Longfellow.

DEAR BETTY DAY: Look, seriously, the Cop and the Dog aren't doing anything, although the Cop is getting a ton of overtime for it. So, in absence of that news, we must return to rock just long enough to say that the all-star classic rock band Playground is roaring back to town for a gleefully noisy set of excellent covers tonight at 9 at Gallagher's Pub & Grill, 2751 Broadway.

The band of veteran rockers features drummer Johnny Lust (Bay City Rollers), basser Wayne Carver (Quiet Riot), guitarer Pete Reveen (The Michael Jackson Band) and vocaler Frank DiMino (Angel).

Dang, that's a mess of talent!

The boys do AC/DC, Bad Company, Beatles, Zep, Cheap Trick, Hendrix - you name it.

FRIDAY PLAYLIST: You're going to the home tour, are you? Well, you can listen to the docents talking about crown molding and verisimilitude, or you can plug in your iPod and listen while you look.

1. "Home Somewhere," Jules & the Polar Bears

2. "Pink Houses," John Mellencamp

3. "This Old Porch," Lyle Lovett

4. "Naive Melody (This Must Be the Place)," Talking Heads

5. "Our House," Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

6. "Red House," Jimi Hendrix

7. "Can't Find My Way Home," Blind Faith

8. "Brick House," The Commodores

9. "Back to the Old House," The Smiths

10. "Life in a Glass House," Radiohead.

tgrobaty@yahoo.com, 562-499-1256