diff --git a/sandbox/README b/sandbox/README
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..02dec1c9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/README
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+
+README:
+
+This directory is for hypothetical ideas for snippets of code,
+etc that may be included into the software at some point.
+
+setup.py will ignore this directory, and so nothing in here 
+will be included in tarball or package releases.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sandbox/xmlrpc_launcher.py b/sandbox/xmlrpc_launcher.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..55ec795c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/xmlrpc_launcher.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2.4
+
+import xmlrpclib
+
+try:
+	# Try and connect to current instance
+	proxy = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy('http://localhost:8888')
+	print proxy.open_file('server already exists')
+except:
+	# if connecting failed
+	print "couldn't connect to socket"
+	import xmlrpc_simple_server
+	xmlrpc_simple_server.Server()
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/sandbox/xmlrpc_simple_server.py b/sandbox/xmlrpc_simple_server.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f736b12b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sandbox/xmlrpc_simple_server.py
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python2.4
+
+import SimpleXMLRPCServer
+
+class Server:
+	def __init__(self):
+		print "Starting simple server, registering"
+		self.server = StoppableXMLRPCServer(('localhost',8888))
+		self.server.register_instance(self)
+		self.server.serve_forever()
+	
+	def open_file(self, *args):
+		print "Opening files", args
+		return args
+
+	def shut_down(self, *args):
+		print "Shutting down the server"
+		self.server.stop = True
+		
+######
+class StoppableXMLRPCServer(SimpleXMLRPCServer.SimpleXMLRPCServer):
+	"""Override of TIME_WAIT"""
+	allow_reuse_address = True
+
+	def serve_forever(self):
+		self.stop = False
+		while not self.stop:
+			self.handle_request()
+######