I hate to put you out for that, and it feels like cheating on my homework, but under the circumstances and the impending holiday I'd take you up on the offer if you're so inclined. I do think it would help me out a lot to understand how to do this properly. Also, my 4yr old had a really good idea that I foolishly added to the (non-coding) worklist so I'm going to be missing some sleep shortly while fabricating all this stuff. Of course I'll post all this with STL's free for public consumption once I get things working. I surely appreciate your help!