It has been an oppressively grey autumn so far, so I took Aidan to Lake Taconic State Park on Friday to get out in some rare sunshine. It was a glorious fall day - the kind where the colors are all impossibly bright and crisp - and I don't just mean the foliage, the grass is ultra green and the sky is super blue and the clouds are at their puffiest and whitest. We spent a couple of hours there, enjoying 2 separate playgrounds and the sand around the lake. As I was trying to get Aidan back to the car, I came across a catapillar.

I showed Aidan and he wanted to take it home, even though we've seen this same caterpillar around our house several times. He has always looked at it, but been nervous about touching it. I told him that if he wanted to bring it home then he should pick it up. I didn't really think he would, but he did and walked gingerly to the car with his little hand outstretched and the caterpillar poised on his finger.

When we got home, I told him he had to let it go outside, but he wouldn't have it, so I put it in a mason jar and found it on the internet. I love the internet. It said it liked dandelions which was a relief for two reasons: we could feed it in the mason jar and it wasn't some invasive pest from across the ocean that destroys apple trees or old oaks.

We kept it in the mason jar overnight and I could see it eating the dandelion leaves and creating an impressive amount of caterpillar poop. I kept telling him over and over again that we were going to have to set it free. I was resisting the temptation to keep it in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator over the winter as the website says you can do. We'll have to try that some winter when we're not moving. I was dreading the upset that would be caused by liberating the caterpillar, but Aidan surprised me by reluctantly doing it himself before we went to Grandma's on Saturday. I was so proud of him.

We saw Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine on Saturday night. It's a documentary that explores why we have so much gun violence in the United States. It is entertaining and shocking and funny and sad important. I hope EVERYONE sees this movie. Yes, you.

And here's a little article from Tyson. It seems some military sort of folks think attacking Iraq is a bad idea.