>Cetin,
>
>I tried your suggestion and that worked like a charm. Thanks for your help. I keep hoping that one day I will get the hang of when to use a cast but it looks like I still have a long way to go.
>

Hi Linda,
I think in your case the problem was not in casting. You declared the variables but left them unassigned.
Framework would warn you at compile time when there isn't an implicit cast and require you to add the explicit casting.
PS: I check return types in intellisense to decide if I should cast. When I miss compiler reminds:)
Cetin