The University of Michigan

Looking over some old Wood-Charles posts, I note how many fictional U of M departments I seem to have invented. Given that tomorrow the school will be shutting down the town for the annual fiasco known as the Ohio State game, seems like a good time to compile a partial list of the various academic organizations I attributed to our ivy-covered sheltered workshop here.

• the University of Michigan's Coloquium on Things We Can Get Somebody to Pay Us to Study
  
• the University of Michigan's Office of Shameless Opportunism.
  
• THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S DEPARTMENT OF STAYING UP ALL NIGHT GIGGLING
  
• THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S CENTER FOR MAKING THINGS UP AS THEY GO ALONG
  
• the University of Michigan's Centre for Having Too Much Time on Its Hands
  
• THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S CENTRE FOR WORRYING ABOUT THINGS LIKE THIS
  
• THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S CONSORTIUM FOR CUDGELING OTHERS INTO SILENCE WITH NITPICKING AND AD HOMINEM ABUSE
  
• HE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S INSTITUTE FOR FINDING NEW SOCIAL PROBLEMS TO STUDY, EVEN IF WE HAVE TO MAKE A FEW UP
  
• The University of Michigan's Department of Hosting Expensive and Probably Useless Conferences
  

I don't really know why I spent the time to pull this together, but there was probably a reason of some kind.

Oddly disappointing

So I spent a whole day this week, running around a huge hospital campus, getting a range of tests that my insurance company wanted (they'll regret it when they see the bill, I'm sure). They tested my heart function, my lung function, and xrayed every bone in my body (almost literally). Today, we had a brief de-brief with my doctor, and the executive summary was, "looks good."

What? An entire day of being jabbed with IVs (my forearms look like I've been assaulted by a porcupine), taking long walks down tiled corridors (a thing I've hated since elementary school), and getting nothing else useful accomplished, and they didn't even find a little dysfunction? I'm not a candidate for a triple bypass? Good news, I guess, but somehow also oddly disconcerting.

Anyway, this presumably clears the way for the big transplant thing in December. After that, we just keep an eye on things, says the doc.

It's Back ...

Absinthe, that is.