diff --git a/app/models/status_message.rb b/app/models/status_message.rb
index d8ff07edc..6c0c7cbb5 100644
--- a/app/models/status_message.rb
+++ b/app/models/status_message.rb
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ class StatusMessage
   include Mongoid::Timestamps
   include ROXML
   include StatusMessagesHelper
+  require 'lib/net/curl'
 
   xml_accessor :message
   xml_accessor :owner
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@ class StatusMessage
   end
 
   def self.retrieve_from_friend(friend)
-      StatusMessages.from_xml `curl #{friend.url}status_messages.xml --user a@a.com:aaaaaa`
+    StatusMessages.from_xml Curl.curl(friend.url+"status_messages.xml")
   end
 
   def ==(other)
diff --git a/lib/net/curl.rb b/lib/net/curl.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..410255146
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/net/curl.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+class Curl
+  def self.curl(s)
+    `curl #{s}`
+  end
+end
+
diff --git a/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb b/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
index fee338107..11978b8d3 100644
--- a/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/status_message_spec.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec_helper'
+include StatusMessagesHelper
 
 describe StatusMessage do
   before do
@@ -52,21 +53,17 @@ describe StatusMessage do
 
   describe "retrieving" do
     before do
-      @remote = Factory.create(:friend, :url => "http://localhost:1254/")
-      StatusMessages = StatusMessagesHelper::StatusMessages
-      #@remote_messages = (0..5).collect {|a| Factory.build(:status_message)}
-      #stub with response of @remote_msg.xml
+      @remote = Factory.create(:friend, :url => "fakeurl")#http://localhost:1254/")
+      Curl.stub!(:curl).and_return(@@remote_xml)
     end
     it "should marshal xml and serialize it without error" do
-      StatusMessages.from_xml(@@remote_xml).to_xml.to_s.sub("/t<","<").should == @@remote_xml
+      StatusMessages.from_xml(@@remote_xml).to_xml.to_s.should == @@remote_xml
     end
     it "marshal retrieved xml" do
       remote_msgs = StatusMessage.retrieve_from_friend(@remote)
       local_msgs = StatusMessages.from_xml(@@remote_xml)
       remote_msgs.statusmessages.each{ |m| local_msgs.statusmessages.include?(m).should be_true}
       local_msgs.statusmessages.each{ |m| remote_msgs.statusmessages.include?(m).should be_true}
-
-        # .from_xml == @remote_messages
     end
   end
 end