sub db_connection {

  my ( $self ) = @_;

  # Insert some code to pull out db specifics like user and
  # password from $self.

  my $dbh = DBI->connect( " yada yada " ), { PrintError => 0},
    or die "cannot open db connection:  $DBI::errstr\n";

  # should I add the connection to $self?

  # this looks incorrect;  maybe return instance after
  # adding it to $self?

  return $dbh;

} # sub db_connection