The Epic Water Pump Saga

Two weeks ago I bought a new bathing suit. It is red, black and awesome because it looks like a super hero outfit. I resolved to do pilates for 20 minutes every day so that I could wear my new bathing suit and look like a super hero. Do you know how many times I have done my 20 minutes of Pilates? None. Not once.

The day that Andrew and I sold my old Honda, we went and bought a broken Volvo. We new it was broken and we bought it with plans to fix it. It needs a new head because, it had a timing belt snap so it has bent valves. That is sad for whoever had it last but happy for us because we have a good car to fix up. By the way, the head is the top half of the engine. Engines generally come in two parts. The air and the fuel lines and such attache to the head. The fixing-it-up adventure has been full of twists and turns. We decided to replace the water pump while we had the head all taken off. That shouldn't have been very complicated, but it was. Here's how it should have gone. Take off the old water pump. Take off the old gasket. Scrub off any bits of the old gasket that are stuck to the engine block. Put on the new water pump.
That's how it should have gone. The new water pump kit didn't come with the right number of bolts. Since the water pump bolts only have to be torqued to fifteen foot pounds (that's not much), we reused one of the hold bolts. It snapped off.
That is bad, very bad. It's two tight a space to fit a drill into and we don't have the equiptment to take the engine out. There was enough of the bolt left sticking out that Andrew managed to cut a slit into it with his dremel. He and our friend Craig, who was over hanging out, backed the bolt out with a screw driver. Okay crisis averted.  
Next day, we head off to Robnuts, the local hardware store to get new bolts. Put the water pump back on. One to the new bolts strips the threads in the block. It wasn't even all the way it! (Consternation. ) WTF? Andrew inspects the bolts. "Uh, Jenny, these are two short."
Me-"but they were what came with the kit."
Well they were the wrong bolts. Back to Robnuts. New bolts and some heavy duty Lock Tight for the bolt with barely any threads. New water pump installation complete. If the water pump ever needs to be changed again is will be a pain in the arse to get that bolt off.
The head has been extra special as well. The one we got from the auto wreckers is damaged, so we have to take it back. Andrew took it apart to put new seal in it so now we have two put it back together. That will mostly be Andrew. I will bring in soda, and hand him tools. The Andrew is powered best by Subway, soda and Redbull. He tries to be healthier when he's not working on such finicky stuff. Anyway, we're getting sending the head with the bent valves to be rebuilt. In the meantime, there's the upholstery. 
So, I may not have done much to build my super hero abs but I have built a semi-permanent layer of grease into my fingers. It gets into the little cracks in my skin where it valiantly resists all scrubbing. I don't think my buffness campaign is going to work out, but I do know a lot more about cars. I may just have to wear my super hero swim suit and look like a not so ripped college student. We'll see.