Frankie's Teabox

Ok, so yesterday I went to the Yokosuka base and took the teabox class again, so I could make this medium/small size box for Frankie. It might be hard to see, but the trim is a twisted linen cord. My plan is to make this smaller size and one larger size trunk for each boy to put his treasures in, and have them be stacked in their rooms. Frankie was pretty happy with this material, so I'll make the bigger one in this as well.

Nate's fabric which I got in Yokohama on a trip with the neighbors, is a navy blue with linen colored dragons curled up on it. So, I will need to take at least three more tea box classes.

Yesterday was a day of drama with the neighbors. It was P's birthday, so M wanted to make her a coconut cake from Paula Deen's recipe which I had saved from a magazine. However, he had to work and so Y was supposed to make the frosting. Y was intimidated by this 7 minute frosting recipe so I agreed to make it, and we rigged up a double boiler in her kitchen. I had only one small request in payment for this tremendous chore.....the cake was delicious!

In the meantime, Ms. Busybody approached me on my way back from walking the pups and informed me that she had done some reading on line, and that I'll have a hard time getting homeowners insurance because Miss Natsumi is an Akita, one of the most dangerous, vicious, blah blah blah on the bad list of dogs. Like the ferocious pit bull, doberman, etc. Just call me Mrs. Deployed Michael Vick.

She asked if I had a trainer for her, and that me thinking I could try to train her at home wasn't going to work. In fact, there is a dog trainer that comes to the base and volunteers, from Zushi. I tried to give Natsumi a signal to bite her, but she just grinned at me and chewed on my flip flop a bit.

Later it was about the length of my younger son's hair - isn't their a rule against such hair? Doesn't the school have a dress code for hair? Isn't there a base policy??

We live in a small tight community here. Everyone knows everyone's business, and since most of us don't work, its easy to get enmeshed in eachother's lives and lose your sense of privacy. In some ways, we also support eachother when our husbands are deployed or away at sea. We can rely on eachother for a shoulder or that egg we need or that plop of sour cream we just have to have on our taco!

People have trouble confronting the negative. However, the peace is only one sided - the person on the receiving end is not feeling the peace! Later I thought about how sad life would be I sat in the courtyard insulting people all day and worrying about their business. I enjoyed a glass of wine with my kind neighbors and had the cake, hugged my boys and dogs and thanked God for them, shaggy hair and all.