Remember in grade school or Sunday school or sometime type of school..........those chain link calendars? Strips of paper, interlocked and glue together and you rip off a circle for each day? What the frick are those called?

Okay, So turns out they're called paper chains. Brilliant. I just did a search for a photo and typed that in and now I feel like an imbecile for thinking there was some magical academic name for it. Christ. So. Here's the stupid picture ( It's not the paper chain's fault that I didn't know that is what it was called, I take back all my venom, Papes. Sors, Old Friend.): So. Another teacher who is also feeling swamped with lesson planning and grading this quarter has been counting down the days until the end of the second quarter. I have joined by asking on an almost daily basis how many the count is at. And I suggested that her student aide make us paper chain calendar. Which was done today. (Your tax dollars, hard at work. Can you hear them grinding away at the millstone?)

Which got me thinking: children, waiting for a particular day, asking how many days until said day, irritation mounting with each request for information, biting of inside of cheeks to keep from crying out in pain, Light bulb. What can I do to not go insane the next time "How many more days?" is asked?

Thusly and ergo... Enter, stage left. I think it is really going to help my colleagues keep from pummeling my head with a shovel within the next 27...no wait.....26 more days of school before the end of the quarter. (It isn't even midterm, people. That is friggin' next week.)