Three things to pump you up today.

INITIAL PUMPING UP
This is an awesome catch you have to see to believe. We’ve seen outfielders patrol their territory and make spectacular diving catches, robbing opposing batters of base hits. But Gary Matthews Jr. of the Texas Rangers just might have topped them all here.

MORE INTENSE PUMPING UP
Now that you’re somewhat excited, you need to check out some raw video of The White Chocolate Factory in action on the basketball court during Lakeside Church’s Saturday Night Basketball session. In case you didn’t know, The White Chocolate Factory is a team comprised of Tyler and Wes Ashworth, Jeremy Baldwin, Brent Fortenberry and myself. We went 3-0 in the games we played together last night….and though the video only shows the first 6 minutes or so of the first game, my stat line read a little bit differently. Over three games, I only scored six points but I pulled down a decent number of rebounds, blocked about seven or eight shots and even had four steals. I felt like Bill Wennington during the Bulls’ title runs of ‘96, ‘97 and ‘98. He didn’t do anything at all but every now and then would come up with something huge, like a block or steal or something. All he needed to do was be on the court and make a minimal contribution, and he did that…and he has a couple rings to show for it.

Anyway, check out the video. This is more or less just to show what Saturday Night Basketball is all about. Thanks to Jon Masters for filming it for me.

Link: Saturday Night Basketball at Lakeside Church, 7-1-06 [QuickTime]

THE REALLY SUPER PUMPING UP SESSION
This is more of a pump up for Aftan and myself than anyone else, but hopefully you catch the excitement as well. As you may well know, on Wednesday morning, at 8:05 AM, I fly out for the state I will always call home, Oregon. For seventeen days I will be enjoying some quality time with my girlfriend, Aftan Rehling. We’ve recently come up with our schedule for the first week, and it includes seeing some of the many sights that make the Pacific Northwest UNBEATABLE by ANY place in the United States, hands down. Here’s what the schedule is looking like (and feel free to click the links I provide, to get more insight into what fun awaits us):

Wednesday
Aftan’s going to pick me up from the airport around 1:30 PM, then we’ll chill in Portland for a few hours and meet up with her friend Trina to head to Applebee’s. After they get out of class for the evening, we’re heading over to Trina’s place for a time of “rest and relaxation.” Oh yeah.

Thursday
BEACH DAY!!! We’re going to make a full day out of it, heading from her place in Warren, to Astoria (home of such movies as The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Free Willy trilogy). We’ll hit up the Astoria Column, Josephson’s Smokehouse, and some other local sights. From there, we’ll head on to Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond, home of the only place in the continental U.S. fired on during World War II. It’s onward to Seaside and Cannon Beach after that, whe’re we’ll go eat at Dooger’s and then go beachcombing at Ecola State Park…enjoying the sight of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Cascade Range to the east. Oh but it won’t be over….we’ll cross the Astoria-Megler Bridge into Washington state, where we’ll make our last stop in Long Beach and Seaview, and head over to Marsh’s Free Museum. (I plan to use a lot of videotape for this trip…)

Friday
Aftan’s gonna surprise me. More to come…

Saturday
Heading into Rainier, Longview and Kelso to pretty much just drive around and visit places like Lake Sacajawea, Willow Grove Park and others. It wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the Three Rivers Mall, of course (hahahaha). This day possibly includes a trip to Johnston Ridge Observatory to view Mt. St. Helens up close and just take a scenic drive for awhile.

Sunday
Church at Grace Baptist, Aftan’s church in St. Helens. Then it’s her call after that!

Monday
Heading back into Portland to visit the Oregon Zoo, ride MAX around, shop on NW 23rd Street, walk around downtown, and score some OSU Beavers Championship merchandise.

Tuesday
This one’s gonna be pretty cool…we’re gonna meet up with my friend Ryan Tack (good friend from high school who is now a freelance photographer), and go hike Beacon Rock. Beacon Rock is the second-largest monolith in the world, second to only Spain’s Rock of Gibraltar. We’re gonna stop back through Vancouver and possibly join my old church, New Horizons Church, for service that night and rendezvous with my brother, also visiting the Northwest.

That’s it for the first week. Still got ten more days after that too!!!!

After all this, I’m officially SUPER PUMPED. God bless!