diff --git a/docs/upgrades/upgrade_6.7.8-6.8.0.pl b/docs/upgrades/upgrade_6.7.8-6.8.0.pl
index f32936728..62c87240e 100644
--- a/docs/upgrades/upgrade_6.7.8-6.8.0.pl
+++ b/docs/upgrades/upgrade_6.7.8-6.8.0.pl
@@ -12,8 +12,6 @@ my $quiet;
 
 start();
 addTimeZonesToUserPreferences();
-#TODO (by somebody!):
-# possibly instead of deleting old user timeZone preferences, convert them.
 # MUST DO: any dates in WebGUI greater than epoch 2^32 must be reduced, because
 # the new DateTime system uses Params::Validate, which will only validate integers
 # up to 2^32 as SCALARs. :(
@@ -25,6 +23,7 @@ sub addTimeZonesToUserPreferences {
 	print "\tDropping time offsets in favor of time zones.\n" unless ($quiet);
 	WebGUI::SQL->write("delete from userProfileData where fieldName='timeOffset'");
 	WebGUI::SQL->write("update userProfileField set dataValues='', fieldName='timeZone', dataType='timeZone', dataDefault=".quote("['America/Chicago']")." where fieldName='timeOffset'");
+	WebGUI::SQL->write("insert into userProfileData values ('1','timeZone','America/Chicago')");
 }
 
 sub removeUnneededFiles {
diff --git a/lib/WebGUI.pm b/lib/WebGUI.pm
index 5fe24e884..46ea38e0a 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI.pm
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ use WebGUI::SQL;
 use WebGUI::Style;
 use WebGUI::URL;
 use WebGUI::PassiveProfiling;
+use Apache2::Request;
+use Apache2::Cookie;
 use Apache2::RequestRec ();
 use Apache2::RequestIO ();
 use Apache2::Const -compile => qw(OK DECLINED);
@@ -53,7 +55,30 @@ sub contentHandler {
 	my $r = shift;
         my $s = Apache2::ServerUtil->server;
 	WebGUI::Session::open($s->dir_config('WebguiRoot'),$r->dir_config('WebguiConfig'),$r);
+	### Add Apache Request stuff to Session
 	$session{wguri} = $r->uri;
+	### check to see if client is proxied and adjust remote_addr as necessary
+	if ($ENV{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR} ne "") {
+		$session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR} = $ENV{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR};
+	}
+	###----------------------------
+	### Apache2::Request object
+	$session{req} = Apache2::Request->new($r, POST_MAX => 1024 * $session{setting}{maxAttachmentSize});
+	###----------------------------
+	### form variables
+	#
+	foreach ($session{req}->param) {
+		$session{form}{$_} = $session{req}->param($_);
+	}
+	###----------------------------
+	### cookies
+	my %cookies = Apache2::Cookie->fetch();
+	foreach my $key (keys %cookies) {
+		my $value = $cookies{$key};
+		$value =~ s/$key=//;	# Strange... The Apache2::Cookie value also contains the key ???? 
+					# Must be a bug in Apache2::Cookie...
+		$session{cookie}{$key} = $value;
+	}
 	if ($session{env}{HTTP_X_MOZ} eq "prefetch") { # browser prefetch is a bad thing
 		WebGUI::HTTP::setStatus("403","We don't allow prefetch, because it increases bandwidth, hurts stats, and can break web sites.");
 		$r->print(WebGUI::HTTP::getHeader());
diff --git a/lib/WebGUI/Asset/Post/Thread.pm b/lib/WebGUI/Asset/Post/Thread.pm
index 1b308c3aa..bb332fd38 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI/Asset/Post/Thread.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI/Asset/Post/Thread.pm
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ sub getStickUrl {
 }
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------
-id
+
 =head2 getSubscribeUrl (  )
 
 Formats the url to subscribe to the thread
diff --git a/lib/WebGUI/HTTP.pm b/lib/WebGUI/HTTP.pm
index 7cb7c48ea..97f224295 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI/HTTP.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI/HTTP.pm
@@ -62,10 +62,10 @@ sub getHeader {
 	return undef if ($session{http}{noHeader});	
 	my %params;
 	if (isRedirect()) {
-		$session{modperl}->headers_out->set(Location => $session{http}{location});
-		$session{modperl}->status(301);
+		$session{req}->headers_out->set(Location => $session{http}{location});
+		$session{req}->status(301);
 	} else {
-		$session{modperl}->content_type($session{http}{mimetype} || "text/html");
+		$session{req}->content_type($session{http}{mimetype} || "text/html");
 		if ($session{setting}{preventProxyCache}) {
        	        	$params{"-expires"} = "-1d";
        	 	}
@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@ sub getHeader {
 	}
 	$params{"-cookie"} = $session{http}{cookie};
 	my $status = getStatus();
-        # $session{modperl}->custom_response($status, '<!-- '.$session{http}{statusDescription}.' -->' );
-        $session{modperl}->status($status);
+        # $session{req}->custom_response($status, '<!-- '.$session{http}{statusDescription}.' -->' );
+        $session{req}->status($status);
 	return;
 }
 
@@ -143,13 +143,15 @@ sub setCookie {
 	my $name = shift;
 	my $value = shift;
         my $ttl = shift || '+10y';
-	my $cookie = Apache2::Cookie->new($session{modperl},
-						-name=>$name,
-						-value=>$value,
-						-expires=>$ttl,
-						-path=>'/'
-					);
-	$cookie->bake($session{modperl});
+	if (exists $session{req}) {
+		my $cookie = Apache2::Cookie->new($session{req},
+							-name=>$name,
+							-value=>$value,
+							-expires=>$ttl,
+							-path=>'/'
+						);
+		$cookie->bake($session{req});
+	}
 }
 
 
diff --git a/lib/WebGUI/Session.pm b/lib/WebGUI/Session.pm
index 1978b09e5..1d2e4a902 100644
--- a/lib/WebGUI/Session.pm
+++ b/lib/WebGUI/Session.pm
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ package WebGUI::Session;
 
 =cut
 
-use Date::Manip;
 use DBI;
 use Exporter;
 use strict;
@@ -28,8 +27,6 @@ use WebGUI::SQL;
 use WebGUI::User;
 use WebGUI::Utility;
 use URI::Escape;
-use Apache2::Request;
-use Apache2::Cookie;
 
 our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
 our @EXPORT = qw(%session);
@@ -78,15 +75,15 @@ sub _setupSessionVars {
 	tie %vars, 'Tie::CPHash';
 	if ($_[0] ne "") {
 		%vars = WebGUI::SQL->quickHash("select * from userSession where sessionId=".quote($_[0]));
-		if ($vars{expires} < _time() ) { #|| $vars{lastIP} ne $session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR}) { # had to remove for revolving ip proxies
+		if ($vars{expires} < time() ) { #|| $vars{lastIP} ne $session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR}) { # had to remove for revolving ip proxies
 			%vars = ();
 			WebGUI::Session::end($_[0]);
 		}
 		if ($vars{sessionId} ne "") {
 			$session{scratch} = WebGUI::SQL->buildHashRef("select name,value from userSessionScratch
                 		where sessionId=".quote($_[0]));
-			WebGUI::SQL->write("update userSession set lastPageView="._time().", lastIP='$session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR}', 
-				expires=".(_time()+$session{setting}{sessionTimeout})." where sessionId='$_[0]'");
+			WebGUI::SQL->write("update userSession set lastPageView=".time().", lastIP='$session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR}', 
+				expires=".(time()+$session{setting}{sessionTimeout})." where sessionId='$_[0]'");
 		} else {
 			$vars{sessionId} = start(1,$_[0]);
                 }
@@ -98,15 +95,10 @@ sub _setupSessionVars {
 sub _setupUserInfo {
 	my $u = WebGUI::User->new(shift);
 	%{$session{user}} = (%{$u->{_profile}}, %{$u->{_user}});
-       #	$session{modperl}->user($session{user}{username});
+       #	$session{req}->user($session{user}{username});
 	$session{user}{alias} = $session{user}{username} if ($session{user}{alias} =~ /^\W+$/ || $session{user}{alias} eq "");
 }
 
-#-------------------------------------------------------------------
-sub _time {
-	return &UnixDate(&ParseDate("now"),"%s");
-}
-
 
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------
 # This routine returns an unique session Id.
@@ -282,7 +274,6 @@ A pointer to a Fast CGI object.
 sub open {
 	my $webguiRoot = shift;
 	my $configFile = shift;
-	$session{modperl} = shift;
 	my ($key);
 	###----------------------------
 	### operating system specific things
@@ -312,31 +303,10 @@ sub open {
 	###----------------------------
 	### evironment variables from web server
 	$session{env} = \%ENV;
-	### check to see if client is proxied and adjust remote_addr as necessary
-	if ($ENV{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR} ne "") {
-		$session{env}{REMOTE_ADDR} = $ENV{HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR};
-	}
 	###----------------------------
 	### global system settings (from settings table)
 	$session{setting} = WebGUI::Setting::get();
-	###----------------------------
-	### Apache2::Request object
-	$session{req} = Apache2::Request->new($session{modperl}, POST_MAX => 1024 * $session{setting}{maxAttachmentSize});
-	###----------------------------
-	### form variables
-	#
-	foreach ($session{req}->param) {
-		$session{form}{$_} = $session{req}->param($_);
-	}
-	###----------------------------
-	### cookies
-	my %cookies = Apache2::Cookie->fetch();
-	foreach my $key (keys %cookies) {
-		my $value = $cookies{$key};
-		$value =~ s/$key=//;	# Strange... The Apache2::Cookie value also contains the key ???? 
-					# Must be a bug in Apache2::Cookie...
-		$session{cookie}{$key} = $value;
-}
+
 	###----------------------------
 	### session variables 
 	if ($session{cookie}{wgSession} eq "") {
@@ -457,7 +427,8 @@ sub start {
 	my ($sessionId);
 	$sessionId = $_[1] || _uniqueSessionId();
 	WebGUI::SQL->write("insert into userSession values ('$sessionId', ".
-		(_time()+$session{setting}{sessionTimeout}).", "._time().", 0, '$ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}', ".quote($_[0]).")");
+		(time()+$session{setting}{sessionTimeout}).", ".time().", 0, '$ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}', ".quote($_[0]).")");
+	require WebGUI::HTTP;
 	WebGUI::HTTP::setCookie("wgSession",$sessionId);
 	refreshSessionVars($sessionId);
 	return $sessionId;