Akhil and I are suffering from Chosun Galbee hangover today, that is, Korean BBQ O.D. It was Angel's birthday and she and Tony took us out there (corner of Western and Olympic) where this impressive and totally packed establishment in the heart of where else, Koreatown, serves you so much food it's hard to believe. No less than 8 included apps and side dishes, from seaweed soup to potato salad to kim chee, spicy cucumbers, fish cake and who knows what else. We each ate our share of shrimp, galbee (which is their signature beef), sweet potato noodles and fried fish, and only one of us managed to eat a Dots cupcake when we got back home. (Not me, thankfully). Well ok, admittedly, we did sample a coconut-topped, pina colada one before we left the house.

So today I am digesting all of that, but also the incredible mountain of information I absorbed into my brain this week. Starting last Monday, I became an employee of the Mouse, and the week was somewhat of a whirlwind due to this transition, of course. But yesterday, it was house-fixing info that filled my brain to capacity as we had the most incredible landscaper here to consult on the mess that is the "English garden" in our front yard, and a mason from Boston Brick and Stone to tell us how to handle our mish-mosh of an 86-year-old, disfunctional chimney. From there we scrambled over to this amazing, buried treasure of a place out in Highland Park called Mortarless Building Supply, on Fletcher. Places like these are what makes L.A. so continually interesting!

Backing up a bit, I did manage to get some good fun in with Heather here when we saw Joey Lawrence and Edyta do a "Dancing With the Stars" bit at Disneyland followed by numerous rides (like Pirates) and a hearthside cocktail at the Grand Californian (fittingly) before I started the new gig. Then my mom came out to visit all by herself and we treated her to the Getty experience as well as her first taste of Thai at Saladang. Now though, it's back into full overdrive mode, and this weekend we are aiming to get some of the big "Phase 2" home-fixing projects kickstarted.

The garden is my project. I didn't know consulting on such matters was a service that nurseries and landscapers offered, but indeed they do, and I found a great one. There's this little French cafe and bakery on Fremont in South Pasadena, and right next to it, a garden center called Barrister's sells the most beautiful plants and flowers. Well, the proprietor came out and surveyed the scene here yesterday morning and she was a magnificent font of info - I need little more than the hour I spent with her to recommend the place wholeheartedly. We've got a lot of pruning, digging, replanting and weeding to do. It looks like the flippers that sold this house two owners ago had no real long-term cares when they overhauled -- we can't complain much, but when it comes to doing things the right way with just about ANYTHING, flippers kind of suck.

Boston Brick and Stone gave us heartening news on the chimney but the best thing was they pointed us to this little, overstuffed tile place you'd never find on your own out on Fletcher, where the owners have been collecting turn-of-the-century original tile "since they were kids" and have more passion for the stuff than anyone I've seen. Boxes of unused Batchelder, old Malibu and Catalina tile, new reproduction versions of everything and plenty of ideas.

I'm a big fan of California tile now that I live here and was introduced to the whole industry when we discovered the amazing Adamson House in Malibu, where we ended up getting married. Malibu tile is featured in this home-turned-museum, where the Rhoda Rindge Adamson lived when her family owned most of Malibu and ran Malibu Potteries until around 1932. Ernest Batchelder was a Pasadena guy who made tile through his firm from around 1910 to 1932 in his own special style. The stuff is relatively hard to find now, and incredibly expensive if you want anything with a design on it. Friezes can run into the $1000s, sadly. This is the tile style that I'm eyeing though, for a possible redo on the odd textured plaster finish we've got on our fireplace facade. We'd love to get our hands on some of that stuff.