Sorry everyone ... don't mean to waste anyone's time... turns out i was calling

$response
[download]

instead of

$Response
[download]

note the capital R? anyways ... the interesting thing is that i can put the above code in an SSI and use the function anywhere in the code. a DATE is automatically embedded on the form and the form elements are named dynamically...

I'm sure that using a second function can draw the values out of the form again