Autumnal Cleaning, Equinox-ing and Voting

 HOUSEKEEPING. A few "important" tidbits for you...

• The subscriber email version of the blog appears to skip the video footage I include - in other words, those of you yearning to see my hotty husband on his new trike need to head to the blog site itself to see the racy three wheeled action from the last post: 

http://teamleslie-thealaskaadventure.blogspot.com/

• Let's be clear: we can get pumpkins here. We just can't pick them ourselves, or even peruse already-picked ones among decorative corn stalks and well-placed hay bales on the side of the road. Having chatted with a few of you, I realized that there was a bit of a "Save Team Leslie's Halloween" movement involving the mailing of 10 pound squashes thousands of miles for hundreds of dollars. Please don't do this. Simply pick your own pumpkin and think of us. Here are some visuals from yesteryear to help you:

We can't get THIS. (circa 2011)

We can't do THIS. (circa 2011)

Rest assured, we WILL be able to do THIS. (circa 2011)

EQUINOX. As luck would have it, a new friend here in town lovingly referred to as "Groundskeeper Chris," secured a community garden plot back in April and grew some fabulous fall produce. In honor of the Autumnal Equinox (a serious holiday in Team Leslie's secular wonderland), Groundskeeper Chris invited us on a potato parade that involved riding our bikes, trikes and chariots to said plot to harvest some spudaliciousness. Copious amounts of buttery mash ensued, and some pretty stellar potato and carrot prints to boot. If we can't get plump orange pumpkins, gosh darn it we'll settle for firm brown tubers.

My favorite veg!

Dirt ball or potato?

The haul.

ROCK THE VOTE. October second is fast approaching and we just received our Alaska voter pamphlet. Admittedly, I don't usually look too closely at these thick, floppy, paper packets. But a few different pieces of candidate information in this one caught my eye:

"Experience: Jr. High School President"

"Education: 1-Year College"

"Memberships: Girl Scout"

Now mind you, I like to think I'm open-minded (Chip, don't comment), especially living in a new place with a new culture. So I looked carefully at some of these people... One Candidate's entire statement reads:

"I am a mom of three bright children. I own a small cafe and hotel. I am running for city council to actively watch [our town] grow and be a safe and reasonable place to live and raise a family."

PolitiFact's Truth-O-Meter wouldn't be able to light any one's pants on fire with that one.  But if elected, would she be respected, listened to, accepted by the council? Based on her running mates, probably. Interesting. Now I'm not forgetting about that Mom from Wasilla who moved up the ranks pretty quick awhile back... "You Betcha" didn't turn out to be too impressive. But I certainly like having some regular people with regular lives and maybe smart ideas getting a chance to share a page in the thick, floppy, paper packet. Cheers to choice. Rock the vote.