I’m on the road and not sure if I’ll have wifi tomorrow- so I’m posting the August Coffee Date a day early! I’m hoping to link up with Coco and Deborah– once again, if I have access to wifi. If not, c’est la vie! Of course I’ll be reading everyone’s posts… eventually.
For the third year in a row, my son and I have driven from South Florida to Waco, Texas, where he is now a junior at Baylor. It takes almost a full day of driving to just get out of Florida.
As we were leaving the state, I thought of Dave Barry’s book, Best. State. Ever: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland. He talks about how, somehow, weird things that happen are always WEIRDER in Florida. When I sent my sister the photo of us leaving Florida, she told me about a fun game.
You google “Florida Man” and your birthday- e.g., in my case “Florida man 3/21.” Here’s what came up:
And here’s one of my sister’s:
Yep, Florida is weird.
We drove through Alabama and Louisiana, until we got to what the natives call “the great country of Texas.”
Now all we have to do is move my son’s stuff into his new house (most of it is being stored in a friend’s garage over the summer.) And I have a riverside run planned, and a walking tour of Waco. This will all be occurring during a “red flag warning” of excessive heat, but not to worry! Floridians may be weird, but we know how to manage heat.
Switching gears abruptly, the day before we left, our new kitchen counters were installed!
We want everything to be bright because the kitchen is very small, so we were going to do white subway tiles for the backsplash- but now I’m thinking that may be TOO MUCH white. I’m really bad at stuff like this. Any advice would be appreciated!
That’s it for this busy week…
What’s your “Florida Man Birthday” headline?
White subway tile? Or…???
37 Responses
Lololol my sons told me about Florida man and THEY ARE SO FUNNY. I mean, how is this possible? But so funny. I love those headlines, and this is one of those things I’m not going to google because I’ll surface hours later finding out about Florida man marrying an alligator or something.
Jenny! Your kitchen looks great! I do have some advice though, and you’ll have to take this with a grain of salt because I’m just looking at a photo and the lighting might be different. It looks from the photo that the cupboards are off-white, and so is the countertop? If that’s the case then pure white subway tiles are going to make them look dingy. If it’s just lighting, and the cupboards are pure white, then no worries, go for the white tile. But what I would do is look at the grey detailing in the granite and try to find a subway tile that would match that light grey. It would complement the granite, and a light grey wouldn’t swallow the light and make it look dark. Just my inexpert, but just went through a massive house build, opinion. A grey would also make the cupboards and granite look very bright.
Yes, you are correct Nicole! Your advice is amazing. Thank you!!!!!!!
I really wouldn’t choose white tiles when everything else is white! I’d take maybe grey. Or subtle green, or something like that. I’m not a big fan of everything white, despite being Scandinavian!
Florida to Texas must take ages to drive! Do you stay overnight somewhere? We used to drive from Sweden to Italy. When my inlaws came with us, my father-in-law insisted we’d drive non-stop. It was very uncomfortable but I managed to sleep somehow, and once I took a flight down instead and we’d meet up in Bergamo. I really prefer stopping along the way.
Those are some hilarious headlines about Florida men… are they for real??!
Ugh!!! We always stay overnight- either in Alabama or Mississippi. I used to do straight-through drives in my youth, ut not anymore! Ten hours in one day is enough for me.
I think I’d do what Nicole suggests above! But I am TERRIBLE at these kind of decisions and such a left brained person so I am the LAST person that should be giving design advice. 😉 But I am so happy that things are coming together and you appear to have a functional kitchen again! yay!
Here is one of my headlines: “Florida man tries to run over son because he didn’t want to take a bath.” You really can’t make this stuff up! Florida does appear to be VERY WEIRD.
Enjoy your time in Texas with your Paul! What a fun tradition for you. Although he’s already a junior? How!?! I think I started reading your blog when he was in his Freshman year of college maybe? So I haven’t read for THAT long compared to other readers but it still doesn’t seem possible that he’s halfway through undergrad!
Hee hee. A lot of the Florida Man headlines seem to involve someone being naked. WHY??? No wonder people have a bad impression of us.
I know- I can’t believe he’s a junior either. College is HALFWAY OVER. I’m not happy about this!!!!!
A Florida man headline for my birthday: Florida Man Bit Elderly Man’s Ear, Attempted To Stab Him With Broken Glass. Sounds like a charming guy.
Or this one: “A trip to the bathroom left a Florida man without an arm.” (It was bitten off by an alligator, BTW).
I love all things white, but agree with Nicole that there are SO many shades of white and undertones and your cabinets in the photo look like they are quite warm (a greige, maybe?).
I’m not sure where you’re getting the tile from, but if you’re getting it from the same place you got the cabinets and countertop, I bet they would have samples you could hold up against the backsplash options? Good luck and it is looking AWESOME! I love it.
Thank you! Yes, I think we’re going to have to get some tile samples. But I love everyone’s suggestions.
Believe it or not your Florida Man headlines aren’t as weird as some others.
Hubs found out about the Florida man thing on vacation and we are obsessed.
I can’t offer any advice on the kitchen because I have your design skills. So far it looks fabulous and will be even better when it’s finished.
Enjoy your travels!
Thank you! Yes, I think we should just let Nicole make all the remodeling decisions.
Florida man suspected of murdering couple was caught biting victim’s face off. Yikes.
The second one was Armless Florida man accused of stabbing tourist. What is even happening in Florida?
I won’t offer any advice on kitchen remodeling because that seems like giving me too much power!
Hmm, yours are pretty gory! Sorry to subject you to that.
Drunken Florida man arrested after shoveling spaghetti into his mouth
Your kitchen is looking great and I will have to agree with the advice above.
Ah, that’s a good one. A lot of them seem to involve someone being drunk.
I grew up reading Dave Barry books and always thought Florida seemed…interesting! The Florida man thing is so funny, here’s one of mine: “Florida man charged with DUI after driving scooter into Walmart shelves.” You can’t make this stuff up!
Good luck with your drive to Texas! I like road trips but I can deal with maybe 6-7 hours max in the car in a day before I get super antsy.
We drove about ten hours each day, and I think that’s my absolute limit!
Your Florida Man headline, once again, involves a DUI (for driving a scooter…what?)
OMG the FL man incidents are hilarious. Mine is FL man steals gator from the golf course. Ha!
All the best with the move in. Is your son starting junior year already?? Time flies.
Do you ever visit the Magnolia Market/Bakery etc when you’re in Waco? I’ve always wanted to!
What? Your headline didn’t involve anyone being drunk or naked? How odd!
Yes, I was at The Silos today! I didn’t get any food though- just browsed in the stores. It’s a fun place.
Those are some hilarious Florida headlines! How can they think these are good ideas!?
The college years just fly by don’t they!? I complained about the drive to Indiana but it was a nice bonding time w my son.
Your kitchen is coming along well. I like the look of the subway tiles backsplash. You could do almost any interesting tile pattern as well.
Yes, the drive is great bonding time. We’re already saying things like “remember that weird hotel we stayed in two years ago?” Good memories!
That’s a crazy longA$$ drive, but I’ve done many long drives before as well. They are a necessary evil, aren’t they? As for the backsplash…not everyone appreciates my artsy-fartsy input (but I’ll share it anyways). Have you thought of accent color(s), for window treatments or towels, etc? Maybe incorporate an extra color in a small “border” surrounding the subway tile? Or even a simple black & white “checkerboard” pattern would add just a tiny bit of interest? In one of our houses, we did a backsplash with square tiles on the diagonal…and the middle row had black tiles (the top and bottom were white).
How about if you come to our house and supervise all this? I’m sure it would look amazing!
Here’s mine – Charges dropped against Florida man arrested for ‘I Eat Ass’ sticker on his truck.
Only one more year driving back and forth to TX.
Enjoy your run there. At least it will be different scenery.
I have no back splash… I couldn’t decide either.
I don’t know why, but your headline really made me laugh. I think it’s because… why is that news?? Why is it a headline??? It’s so dumb. But I’m still laughing.
My birthday is close to yours so I got the same (first) headline 😉
I think white subway tiles would look great – or you could do something with an “accent line”… for an eye-catcher. We had a white kitchen in our old house with a nice backsplash (see here: https://flic.kr/p/PToBSU)
We had something similar to that with our old backsplash- but we made the mistake of installing it ourselves, and it did it look good!!! But we could have something like that this time, since a professional will be doing it.
OMG, your Florida Man results are hilarious!
Your kitchen looks great so far. I’d go all in with white and add color with other things.
Enjoy your time in Texas!
That is true- once we get everything else in the kitchen it won’t be all white.
Naked Florida Man Starts House Fire While Baking Cookies On George Foreman Grill
Florida Man Arrested For Refusing To Remove “I Eat A** Sticker From His Truck
A Florida Man Was Arrested After Telling A Playground Full Of Kids Where Babies Come From
So there’s that.
Some of these are funny simply because they’re considered “news?” And then some of them are just weird. I swear, so many of them involve a naked man (???)
Your kitchen looks bigger than mine . . . well, white keeps it cooler, LOL! It really just matters what you want. Sorry, no help.
I live in Austin. Remember its motto: Keep Austin Weird. There are a lot of weird places in the US actually . . .
I hope the moving & trip back go smoothly!
Yes, but I feel like Austin is weird in a GOOD way, if you know what I mean. But you’re right- Florida isn’t the only weird place in the
I looked mine up and let’s just say not appropriate to post here. My birthday is 11/20 if you’re curious.
Your kitchen is looking good. I chuckled and looked even when you said not to look at the floor. My kitchen is OLD (like the 1970s) and the floors are over 10 years old. Yours is nicer looking than mine.
Haha – my book club group chat just did this Florida man meme together! Mine was HORRIFYING rather than funny, though. “Masturbating Florida man slugs elderly man who asked him to stop.” EEKS.
WHAT. What in the world is wrong with our state.
Here you go, a slightly different reference to being drunk:
Honest Florida Man Pulled Over For Speeding Says ‘Not Gonna Lie To You, I’m Drunk’
OTOH, I also got this:
Florida man tries to conceal $1,000 cash in rectum, deputies say
YIKES. Moving on!
You saw states on your drive that I have never visited (e.g., Alabama), or that I visited long ago and for brief periods (e.g., Louisiana). I’ve also only been to select locations in TX. They’re just not locations that are super-high on my list, but one of the benefits of having to go to a particular location from another is that you don’t necessarily get to *choose* where you drive! I bet it’s fun finding new things and revisiting old ones during these drives. Enjoy them!
Thank you Anne! It’s true- none of these states would normally be on my list of exciting vacation spots. But, there are interesting things everywhere!
I like your Florida Man stories… well, kind of, ha ha.