Last weekend, I had time to put a few plants around the bottle tree, so now it’s looking more at home in the garden. I got those two gorgeous sea green junipers at Harb’s Oasis. I also found out that I’m allergic to sea green juniper; the hives stayed on my arms for about a week.

I moved my echinacea in front of the bottle tree and then put some recycled daylilies in front of that. By spring, this should look pretty nice.

The CNN/YouTube Republican debate is tonight. Since I can no longer stand to hear the stupid questions that Wolf Blitzer and Chris Wallace come up with, questions designed to box candidates in to controversial or divisive positions, I’m looking forward to questions posed by real people.

With that coming up I’ve been thinking more about the upcoming election. I’m not one to place bets on the political markets like intrade, but I do like to make predictions. So I’ll record a few here, then I can look back smugly about how wise I was.

1. Mike Huckabee will edge-out Mitt Romney to win the Iowa Republican Caucus.
2. On caucus night, John Edwards’ Iowa supporters will, recognizing their candidate cannot win the general election, divide their support between HRC and Obama. Obama will come out ahead by 5 to 10 points.
3. John Edwards will leave the race after placing third in the South Carolina primary, giving Obama a boost.

There it is. I’ve laid out my predictions. Let the chads fall where they may.

I was thinking about bridges today. You know that part of a song after the second chorus but before the third verse where it goes off in a different direction?

I always liked that Julianna Hatfield song, This is the Sound, where she just says “Bridge!” right before the band goes into the bridge. You can’t get much more straight-forward than that. Plus, she sounds pretty cute when she says it. Have a listen:

Yet, even more simple than that, is perhaps my favorite bridge introduction. After the second verse-chorus of I’m the Man Who Murdered Love by XTC, Any Partridge sings “Oh, it’s the middle of the song”. No fancy musician jargon necessary. Listen:

If you can think of any bridge introductions that you like, leave a comment.

My bottle tree has bloomed. I plan to add another couple of rows as I acquire more bottles. Maybe 12 more or so. Click here for more pics.

A side note to this project: What’s the one joke you hear the most when you tell people you are making a bottle tree? "At least you don’t have to water it."

Today, I planted a bottle tree. I expect it to bloom soon.