Can close count in quilting?

I've been working on this big ole quilt for weeks now. I know, I know, it's taking me longer than I anticipated forever, but what can I say? I have a full time job that does not include time for quilting. 

For some reason there's this idea in places (where there are no teachers) that we teachers work from 8 to 3 and then we go home to eat bonbons do nothing.  Well, let me dispel that lie myth: I start work at 7 a.m. and, while I may not get paid after 3 p.m., it doesn't mean that Elvis I have left the building. 

In fact, on Monday and Tuesday I worked until 4:30, still teaching-- but at that time teaching the teachers. Some of our new people and a few of the older retired people who have returned don't know how to use the computer programs specific to education. Somebody has to help...it's said I'm a sucker patient mentor.

Then I spent an afternoon helping to repaint the big panther and letters on the front of the field house. I was there to support my art teacher/friend and our Betas. I was there for forever less than an hour, which was about five minutes of hell heat more than I can handle. But we survived and somehow finished the job. 
The panther is nothing short of ferocious. 

And last night. Well last night was my night to work slave at the football game. It was the first game of the season and our jamboree. The jamboree just happens to be the one time that all three high schools meet up on one field and play ten two games each. Sort of a tournament for the parish schools. Sort of the biggest night for the ticket booth. Sort of the longest night, too. Sort of includes some algorithmic math. Oh, the luck! (Who even knows what algorithmic means? Is it really a word? I may have to look into that.)

You know how hard it is for an English teacher to do math an entire night for four hours? Hard. No, real hard. Difficult. Herculean. So I decided to make a cheat strategy sheet: something to help me remember how much to charge. Multiplying 8's is not easy, especially when I don't have time to count on my fingers. 

I found an old bag and tore off a chunk, used my metallic Sharpie to write the algorithms multiplications and taped it to the wall where everyone could see it. Turns out that I wasn't the only one to conceal take a peek.  (Also turns out that algorithms is a word--meaning a set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps. Yeah, I don't believe it either, but it's in the dictionary.)

Me...don't let the smile fool you! I looked
like a Mack truck had run over me at the end.

And that's my work week...a few extra hours at regular no pay. According to my algorithm, the total number of hours is nine, and then there are the two hours of grading papers. But who's counting, right? I'm a sucker a teacher...what matters is that I have summers off.