Travel day

Wow, I can't believe how damn easy my job is some days, I feel like I should have to pay them to work here. Just in case anybody doesn't know, I run the Fort Worth yard of an independant chemical company out of Midland. I have never had a better job, in any sense. Yesterday, I watched my guy, George, work in the field for about 3 hours in the morning, and I talked to my customer. This did happen to be my biggest customer, by far, so around 11:15 am, I asked, "Hey Kim, where do you want to go for lunch?", to which he replied, "I don't know, let me ask the boys." So, we ended up at Kelly's sports bar for lunch, actually surprised that it wasn't the new sushi joint just down from that. Sports bars are not a very good place to eat lunch, in my opinion, because you can't drink, and the food is usually not very good. But it beats a cold sandwhich, or as my Papa used to call a "missmeal" meaning that you don't eat at all. Anyone who knows, or has seen, me in the past 10 years, knows that I don't have a lot of missed meals under my belt. After lunch, I sent George to get 2 tickets signed, and I went to have 1 signed, and went home. Angie and I loaded the suburban, and picked the kids up from school, and headed to Roby, to have a fish dinner at her parents cafe. Now, is that an easy job or what? It's not always like that. It can be very stressful, especially when the sales are not there, but sales are good this month, and, I felt that we deserved a break.

I wrote this because I am addicted to this now, and I truly had nothing else to write. Angie, Natalie, Matthew, and Brayden are all fine. No news on the robbery. Nothing. So maybe something will happen tonight, when I go to the racetrack with my Father-in-law. He is still racing in Abilene, and having a blast, so I should have a good story for you all tommorrow.
Berryman OUT! haha

Investigator Nolan

I called Investigator Nolan today. He told me that he was at the DPS lab getting the videos enhanced. I thought that this was supposed to have already been done, but it had not. He also informed me that he had a new video that involved a car, and he was trying to get that video enhanced to try to read the liscense plate. I asked about the other videos, that he has had for a while now, and he said that he couldn't get a positive ID from them. He said that it was the same woman and a child in all of them. Now, someone has passed checks on my personal account, and I guarantee that a woman did not do that, but he didn't have anything on that. Let's backtrack a little. I left out a few things from my first post. Either the same night or the night after the robbery, a person from a check cashing place in North Fort Worth called the house and asked me if I had written a $400 check to a woman named Leah Stout. I said NO. She called the cops, and as fate would have it, a gang unit was right across the street. They arrested her for the check and possesion of a controlled substance. She's out, and has been out, of jail now. Chase, Investigator Nolan, questioned her about where she got the check, and she said she got it from Spiderman!!! We found Spiderman, and Chase has since eliminated him as a suspect in the robbery. BUT, when I was in his office, he left to go recieve a fax, and I perused the file, SpiderMan is named Greggory Gilbert Glover, obviously his parents hated him, so do I. But what I want to know, is how can you recieve a check from someone, so soon after a robbery, if he didn't rob us, he must have helped, or know who did. Why eliminate him?

Enough of that rant, it hasn't done any good. Have you ever thought about robbing someone's house? Obvioulsy, these people do this all the time. What is in a person that makes them want to take things that aren't theirs? You have to know that you are going to be caught. You stand to lose a hell of a lot more than you gain, at some point. If I attempted to rob a house, I would probably be confronted by, locked doors, that I have no idea how to open, an alarm system, that people sometimes arm, Batman, Spiderman, Superman, The Grinch, Bigfoot, a doberman pincher, or God forbid a Rotty, Starsky and Hutch, Colombo, Hunter, Cagney and Lacey, the crew from Las Vegas, CSI, and Sipowitz. My point is, I am fairly smart, and honest to a fault, even when it hurts people that I love's feelings. How do stupid people get away with things like this. Most of our checks have been written at Walmart, and they dont ID them. I will never buy anything there again, EVER. Especially after the hell that they put Angie through when she went on a Sunday to buy formula for Brayden. I don't care that IGA is 15 cents an item higher, they will be recieving all of my business, because they asked the woman in front of me in line for her drivers liscense, for a 22 dollar check. DAMN RIGHT. Screw the evil empire!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more, I don't care about simplicity, its about principlals.

NEXT
Remember when I said that the team we were supposed to play tonight was terrible, they were! So bad, in fact, that the dissolved the team, and forfieted the rest of their games. Ever heard of parent coached teams standing for that? So, we had no game tonight. Also, Matthew did not get into anything TODAY. Brayden went to the doc yesterday, and the doc gave him some meds to clear his sinuses. She said that, of course he has reflux, something that we haven't dealt with before, but had under controll, but that all the snot that he was sucking down, trying to breathe, was having an adverse affect on the reflux. So, his little belly was torn up, and he was never able to be comfortable, even when he was asleep. Last night he slept from about 10 till about 4. I never thought that Angie would be happy with 4, but, as I said in an earlier post, he likes to sleep on he and squirm. Last night he slept between us, not on her, and slept till 4. WOW! Who knew medicine worked. They are asleep right now, and have been since about 11. Me, yeah I'm still up, but that is normal, but I have to think about what to write on here, since I am now addicted to this. I guess that is all for now. We are away for the weekend to see MOMS, so I will probably post again on Sunday night. See ya then, Jim

Como estas?

Well, guess what? Matthew thinks he is learning spanish. Either in class in first grade, or from some of his latin brothers. This was a night or two ago, Angie and I can't put a date on it, we only remember laughing, and embarassing our son. So about 6:30 Matthew says "Hey dad, como estas?" To which I replied. "I'm fine Matt, how are you?" "No dad, como estas?" "Matthew, I told you I was fine, what do you want?" "Dad, do you not know Spanish, I asked if I could take your order, you know, just like the waiters when we go to the mexican restuarnats?" Oh hell! He was so serious. This was hillarious when he said it, doesn't seem so to me now, but the child thought I was stupid. We don't know where his newfound skill came from, but, he really thought he was right in asking it. I can't wait for the next phrase, especially if he is learning it from his buddy, Daniel. Daniel is a boy that Matthew trades UH-GI-OH cards with every day after school. God, I hope they haven't found a willing victim!! What if he goes on one of his talking sprees in class and decides to drop some of his new found knowledge on everyone. We could be in the Principal's office for weeks. I guess is should set aside a few of my prescious vacation days just for Matthew, and the principal. It's not like we didn't see something like this coming, but he never stops amazing us in his delivery. No one could possibly ever predict this kid.

We have not heard anything new on the robbery, or anything associated with it. I will make a call to the investigator tommorrow and let everyone know what I learn. Natalie has a ballgame tommorrow in Slidell, but it may well be rained out. I will update that tommorrow night late or day after tommorrow early. I have heard that their team is horrible, so it should be a fun game!! Who knows! Well that's all for today, see ya tommorrow. Jim

Psychotherapist

Big word, huh! Did I tell you that I won my 4th grade spelling bee?

Natalie went to the psychotherapist today to learn some more relaxation techniques. More with the nickel words, I know, but you learn them when you have to go through this with your baby girl. I told Natalie that she her mon would be picking her up early from school today to go to the doctor. She didn't look happy, so I told her that she was going to see her psychotherapist, and she was instantly happy. She asked me, "Do you mean Nanny?" I said "yes." She was pumped. I didn't know why, because I didn't go with her last time, nor did I go today, but, since she saw her last, she has only had her arm sieze up once. She has been listening to a cd with some relaxation techniques on it. Seems to be working, and as good as it makes me feel, she really seems to see the benefits of it. Now remember, this is supposed to be a malady that is not stress related, but this works, so maybe this one is differnet. I hope so. The doc at Cooks tried this at her last visit, because she only has trouble on school days. We go back next Thursday at 9 AM. I will be taking her to let Angie stay at home and do her job, which has been greatly affected with doctor appointments, and Brayden. He, and Angie, hasn't slept worth a damn in the last 3 days.
You can see it on Angie's face, but she won't admit it, but it's there. He wants to sleep on top of her, and he wakes up a lot, but not loudly, so I never hear it, and she won't wake me up, or can't. But right now they are both sleeping soundly, I have the monitor on to go get him if he does, but nothing. Hopefully he will level back out to the baby that we had a week ago, all smiles and coos. He may very well be the cutest baby we have produced, but for anyone who has seen THE INCREDIBLES, he is friggin JACK-JACK! The child just explodes for no reason, his hair catches fire and he walks on the damn ceiling! Goo Goo Gaa Gaa, SCREAM!!!!! We can't figure him out, but we, or should I say, Angie will. She is amazing, as always. Matthew did nothing of note today, but there is still tommorrow, so tune in then to see what craziness he creates. Later, or earlier, Jim.

The weekend

I almost forgot, this weekend was beautiful, and Nat and Matt spent about 5 hours a day at the crawfish pond down the hill. I don't know if they were doing anything other than wasting hotdogs and bacon on the crawdads, but from their accounts, they sure did attract the snakes. Had to get Matthew on here somehow, didn't I. They saw a "water viper", I believe he called it, and he IS the expert, just ask Grandpa Racecar. It was black and white and could float. They barely escaped with their lives and had to be rescued by the neighbor's dad. He can see the pond from his house, and we cannot, but I do not worry, because it is less than 2 feet deep at its max, therefore, no fish, just crawdads. I don't mean to worry anyone, we do actually still check on them occasionally, just hard to see from our house, and the kids need to experience a little independance for themselves. We are usually all over them, and I know they need a break. I do believe the only thing they brought home from the pond was their bucket, and a hell of a lot of mud, oh well, there is always next time. Jim

Monday's softball game

Well, we played one of our two softball games, this week, today, a 12-12 tie. The Ump called it a tie to start the next game. Not ideal, but I had to work the concession stand for the late game, and it didn't end till 10 p.m., so I am not too mad. We played wonderfully. Our pitcher didn't show up, but our backup didnt allow a run in the first inning. We scored 3 in the first, Natalie struck out. That doesn't happen often. They scored 6 in the second, as did we. The ump started the 3rd inning with 1 1/2 minute remaining. MORON! We were up 9-6. Last inning, they scored 6. Our pitching fell apart, but it was 48 degrees and raining lightly. When we came to bat, I lost the game for us. I sent a girl to second on a batted ball that was overthrown to first base. Who Knew, their first baseman has a cannon for an arm, and was dead on. Got her by 2 steps. We ended up only scoring 3 runs in the last inning, and were lucky to do that. He, the ump, should have called two of our girls out, because my assistant touched, kinda pushed, two girls on third base, propelling them toward the plate. The girls are not used to running like we did tonight, so they were stopping on third base as usual. Not good enough when you are behind, because scoring runs is FUN! Winning is FUN, and we are here to have FUN... Oh well, the tie moves our record to 4-1-3, still not too bad, because we have no 10 year olds on our 10 and under team. We should be super next year, and I have no complaints about this year. Oh yeah, Natalie had 2 putouts at first base again tonight. The first was hit to our right fielder, who actually plays between 1st and 2nd, Dawn threw to Natalie for the out, later Natalie fielded a ground ball and beat the runner to first for the out. All in all, not a bad night, except for the weather. Oh well, we have another chance Thursday in Slidell, if it is not too muddy, it is supposed to rain tommorrow and Wednessday. All for now. Jim

Robbery

O.K. I know that some of you know, and some of you don't, that we had our house robbed on April 7th. This is just a recounting of events to keep everyone straingt, so no one gets left out. Natalie was sick on the 6th. On the 7th, I took Matthew to school, then went to work. Angie caught Natalie playing in her room that morning, looked at the clock, and said "You are going to school". It was before 9 am, if the children get to school before 9am they are not counted absent.
So she took Natalie to school, then went to the Post Office to ship some things that she sold on Ebay. When she returned home, less than an hour later, the house had been robbed. She was obviously very upset, and called me. I returned home, and called the police on the way. The people or person that robbed us took Angie's pearl necklace, that Angie's parents gave to her on her 16th birthday, and have been adding to ever since. They also took some other jewlrey, all of my guns, a rifle that was my grandfathers, one that was my fathers, a shotgun that was my fathers, and a rifle that my cousin gave me for Christmas. They took most of my power tools, including a very nice 18v circular saw that Angie got me for Christmas, I never even got to use it. About a 3 foot chunk of my clothes out of the closet, must have been dress clothes, because I don't know what is missing. My damn poker chips, good ones too! Also, Checks from my personal account, that were on top of my laptop, that they of course took. Checks from our joint account, and checks from Angie's personal account. We don't have that much money, but this is a way to buy presents for each other and the other person doesn't know how much they cost.

At first, we were very upset about the sentimental things that they took from us, but the checks turned out to be the real theft. They haven't actually gotten any money from us, but they have sent us into chaos. Every check recovery company in the U.S. is on us. Hell, Walmart will still take the stolen checks, but they wouldn't let Angie get out of the store last Sunday. That is total crap. We have had financial difficulties in the past, but were doing pretty well lately, and this has sent us back into the crap that we used to deal with on a regular basis. Telecheck, Vericheck, and a list of others are all used by the places we shop, and we cannot write checks anywhere. So we are a cash family now, we just got our new debit cards friday 4/29. Maybe things will settle some now. It's not fun to be without a way to buy groceries for the children, or formula for Brayden.

The Wise County Investigator told me Thursday, the he should have a warrant on someone next week. I hope he does, but he will not give me a name. It turns out that it looks like a female that robbed us. This is all from videotape from Walmart and Allsups. She wrote a check to Allsups within an hour of the robbery, took a while to get, as all of Allsups video is sent to the home office in New Mexico.

Other news, I am coaching Natalie's softball team this year, and we are 4-1-2, and having a great year. Our league is comprise of 12 teams, 3 from Decatur, 3 from Bridgeport, and some other local towns. Our one loss came at the hands of the Paradise team, 14-0, but we beat the team that beat them. This is the first year that the girls have to pitch, and it took us a while to develope a real pitcher. Jessica's mother was a college catcher, and they have been working together a bunch. She is awesome!! Natalie is by far the best first baseman in the entire league. She is responsible for 2-3 putouts per game. Not many hits, as the girls on the other teams can't get it over the plate very often, but as long as we are winning, I don't care, I mean having FUN!
Winning is the most fun though. We have beaten all of the Decatur teams and both Bridgeport teams that we have played, so all is well.

More to follow on the robbery and softball and whatever else.

Jim