Drinking today: Black Raven tea by Eastern Shore Tea Company in my old Mill Mountain Coffee and Tea (Roanoke, VA) mug, as thinking about college has made me wistful.

I love the rain. I love it so much I have an app on my phone that plays the sound of a thunderstorm for when I'm trying to fall asleep. I think there was a period during college where I didn't like it because rain keeps you inside. During college, I wanted to be outside with my friends or traveling outside to see said friends...that or I was having to walk in the rain to class. I'll grant you, I still don't usually love walking in the rain, nevermind driving, but I don't yearn to be outside most of the time nowadays like I did in college. Now, there are few things I enjoy more than the sound of a good rainstorm, accompanied by a hot cup of tea. It's been raining all day today, which I am currently loving. I have a lovely big window to look out of while I write to you fine people. My kids, too, love the window. They often watch the goings-on of the world through it, perched comfortably on top of the couch, of course. See?

It's the little things in life.

Anyway, I promised a review of the new case and keyboard last week, didn't I? A link to the one I bought is below. Overall, I mostly like it. As someone *cough cough the hubs cough* predicted, I have already dropped Eris (that's the new iPad's name) several times, so having corner protection and raised sides on the case was a very good choice. I also like the swivel feature, as some of my apps can only go in one direction. The keyboard has taken some time to get used to. I like that's magnetic and therefore holds onto the case, though it doesn't hold on that well if I accidentally bang it around. Oops. The biggest thing I dislike about the keyboard is the inexplicable layout of some of the keys. The apostrophe is the weirdest one. Apostrophes are one of the most commonly used keys, but the colon and the semicolon buttons have gotten better real estate than the old apostrophe. Really? I mean, I could almost see an argument for the colon, but semicolon? That's just crazy. As I've been typing, I've had to go back every time I try to type an apostrophe and replace the semicolon I just tapped by mistake. Yeah, those "I've's" I just wrote were a real pain. I also have not found how to make an asterisk at all with this keyboard. The top row of numbers is full of secondary options that, to me, seem ridiculous. Being able to control my music, search, and control the volume are not as urgent as being able to easily type in all the necessary characters. Aha! I just found the asterisk. It's above the 8. I just couldn't see it for all the crap that's also up there.

Rating: 7 out of 10

I may yet end up getting a prettier case and a separate keyboard, but the convenience of this one cannot be denied, for the most part. I might just need more time to get used to using it.

In other news, don't forget about the giveaway for a signed copy of "Out of the Shadows". You can enter the giveaway here.

In other-other news, someone, naming no older sister, has been bugging me about putting up a way to follow my blog from my blog's page. Therefore, I have Googled the issue and you can now subscribe to my blog straight from the Homepage or the Random Thoughts page. Sorry, there doesn't appear to be a good way to put that in the top of the blog page. So you can now subscribe if you're so inclined (assuming you aren't already subscribed via Goodreads or something. Thanks for reading!