Thanks Mark!  A much more elegant way than what I was doing.  I'm trying to get it working but I think my problem now is that I'm using an iframe in the Notes client in which to display my xPage, so I believe it's the authentication problem I need to get past.  The reason I think this is, while I could produce the xPage with straight text on it before, now I'm getting an Error 401.  And I've come across this article -> http://lotusnotus.com/lotusnotus_en.nsf/dx/http-authentication-from-xpinc-got-help-found-bug-worked-around.htm.  So as soon as I get that going, I think your solution is the best.