Goodbye PowerBook?

My beloved old PowerBook G3 seems to have fallen into a coma (no, I didn't drop it), and so far, there has been no sign of recovery.

We've tried unplugging and re-plugging the whole hing. No good. We've threatened it and taken its battery pack out and battered it. No good.

Right now Dad is messing with it, but it doesn't look like it's going to help much.

On the bright side, this means I have an excuse to use Jordan's brand new MacBook Pro, which is waaaay better than my old one.

And it looks like we'll get to take the PowerBook apart! Fun!

Merry Christmas!

Run Santa, Run!

I'm home!

After two very busy weeks at CEM (hence the lack of blogging), I'm back in Lausanne for two weeks of vacation! It's goig to be great to spend time with family, with the Church, to see friends and get some rest.

I've already been able to do the first three things on my list. However, I have yet to get some rest (I could have napped this afternoon, but then, no blog). I got back at 11:45 last night, and then Dad and I ran to the centre of town to join Mom in the Lausanne Midnight Run, which started, coincidence, at 12 pm.

There were about 750 runners, a few of them dressed as Santas. Thankfully, none of them passed me. I guess they had had a few too many cookies.

Booby Trapped Garage

Tomorrow evening, the church is hosting its annual Christmas program. Our choirs will sing a few praise and Christmas songs, then the children and teenagers from the church and neighborhood will present a musical about the Nativity.

People from this area of France are known for their tendency to exaggerate. They exaggerate so much that they supposedly claim Jesus was born in southern France, not Judea. So there is a traditional Christmas story here about how Jesus was born in Bethlehem, France (no one knows where it is anymore, but it is known that you have to go through Marseilles to get there). Throughout the musical, two angels argure about where the Nativity is taking place. It's fun!
We will perform again in another neighborhood next week. I was there putting invitations in mailboxes, when I notices a strange sign on one house. Now, I'm used to "I have dogs who will kill you" signs and stuff like that. But this one said, I am not making this up, "booby trapped garage".

My question: How would you go about booby trapping a garage?

"Ados" night

Once or twice a month, the church youth group has a Saturday evening activity. The teens ("Ados" in French) invite friends from school or their neighborhood to come play games, eat, sing and pray with them. It's always really fun, and we've had 20 to 30 kids almost each time. For some of them, this is the only contact they have with a church.

As CEMists, we help Philippe set things up, organize the activities and games, and clean up. Of course he usually does most of the work, but we'll get to take more responsibilities as time goes on. We also have a blast just spending time with the teens. So far I haven't found one who could eat more than me or beat me at arm wrestling (those wimps).

In Lausanne

After the retreat in Germany, we CEMists came down to Lausanne for a seminar on 1 John and Thanksgiving (we came for Thanksgiving, we didn't study it. I don't even think turkeys are mentioned in 1 John).

The seminar was great, I learned a lot (gnosticism = bad, love your neighbor = good).

And, of course, the Thanksgiving feast was wonderful. Mom spent a long time in the kitchen preparing the meal, and it was really worth it! It was great to taste Mom's cooking after having to eat my cooking for two months!

Here's a picture of the three CEMists in Lausanne. We look tired, but we were more tired than that.