XML writer oddity

[darrel]

In my app, I need to update the database, and then, from that database, spit
out an XML file.

I have two functions:

updateDB()
writemenu()

If updateDB fails (errors out in my try/catch) statement, writeMenu still
executes, but spits out an empty file for some reason. The two functions
shouldn't interfere with each other. Even if the DB update fails, it
shouldn't effect the menuWriter from being able to grab the existing data in
the DB and write out a new XML file.

Any reason why one function would cause the other to poop out on me?

-Darrel