Hi Monk Awohld,
I'm working on a LWP Virtual agent too. And I get a problem with "refresh page" (Have a look on other post ;)).
For the cookies purpose. I think you have to complete your code.

cookie_jar      => HTTP::Cookies->new(
                file            => 'mycook.txt',
                autosave        => 1,
                ignore_discard  => 1,
                )
[download]

The "autosave" option is used by LWP to update the cookie session automatically. The txt file is a "Cookie box". When the HTTP::Cookies will be destroy, it 'll be save in this file (And restore cookie).
The"ignore_discard" parameter save even cookies that are requested to be discarded
(Because LWP respect the RFC 2965 -> that means LWP don't discard the cookies when the script ends.)

If you have use manually your site, maybe your browser have save the cookie sessions. You can import hime by using specific module like :
HTTP::Cookies::Netscape, HTTP::Cookies::Mozilla etc

Finnaly, maybe have a look on the HTTP::Status .
I hope that'll help you. I'm very interresting in your code, i'm begginner in the part of Perl lib.