So, I don't have anything that starts with XML::

In the end, I just did the thing I said I was going to do -- parse each line the same way I would have done in C. I appreciate the suggestions you guys gave me, and this assignment has really made me want to get good at perl. I am hoping to start looking into learning it from the start -- the RIGHT way. Of course I am going to peruse through here a lot, I imagine, but do you guys have any text/website reccomendations aside from here and the camel book from O'Reilly?

Thanks again!!!