diff --git a/atomstrom.py b/atomstrom.py
index 0bcd13f..1d0b4a1 100755
--- a/atomstrom.py
+++ b/atomstrom.py
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python
 
-from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Table, Column, Integer, Text, Boolean, DateTime, MetaData, ForeignKey, desc
+from sqlalchemy import create_engine, Table, Column, Integer, Text, String, Boolean, DateTime, MetaData, ForeignKey, desc
 from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker, relation, backref
 from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
@@ -52,14 +52,14 @@ class Feedinfo(Base):
     id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
     feed_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('feed.id'))
     feed = relation("Feed", backref=backref('feedinfo', uselist=False))
-    title = Column(Text)
-    link = Column(Text)
-    subtitle = Column(Text)
-    author = Column(Text)
-    publisher = Column(Text)
+    title = Column(String(255))
+    link = Column(String(255))
+    subtitle = Column(String(255))
+    author = Column(String(255))
+    publisher = Column(String(255))
     status = Column(Integer)
-    version = Column(Text)
-    encoding = Column(Text)
+    version = Column(String(16))
+    encoding = Column(String(16))
     bozo = Column(Integer)
 
     lastfetched = Column(DateTime)
@@ -73,15 +73,15 @@ class Feedinfo(Base):
 
     def update(self, parser):
         if parser.feed.has_key('title'):
-            self.title = parser.feed.get('title').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.title = parser.feed.get('title')
         if parser.feed.has_key('link'):
             self.link = parser.feed.get('link')
         if parser.feed.has_key('subtitle'):
-            self.subtitle = parser.feed.get('subtitle').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.subtitle = parser.feed.get('subtitle')
         if parser.feed.has_key('author'):
-            self.author = parser.feed.get('author').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.author = parser.feed.get('author')
         if parser.feed.has_key('publisher'):
-            self.author = parser.feed.get('publisher').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.author = parser.feed.get('publisher')
         self.status = parser.get('status')
         self.version = parser.get('version')
         self.encoding = parser.get('encoding')
@@ -97,14 +97,14 @@ class Entry(Base):
     id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
     feed_id = Column(Integer, ForeignKey('feed.id'))
     feed = relation("Feed", backref=backref('entry'))
-    title = Column(Text)
-    link = Column(Text)
+    title = Column(String(255))
+    link = Column(String(255))
     summary = Column(Text)
     content = Column(Text)
-    author = Column(Text)
+    author = Column(String(255))
     enclosures = Column(Text)
 
-    resolvedlink = Column(Text)
+    resolvedlink = Column(String(255))
     fullpage = Column(Text)
     readability = Column(Text)
     updated = Column(DateTime)
@@ -121,15 +121,15 @@ class Entry(Base):
 
     def update(self, entry):
         if entry.has_key('title'):
-            self.title = entry.get('title').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.title = entry.get('title')
         if entry.has_key('link'):
-            self.link = entry.get('link').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.link = entry.get('link')
         if entry.has_key('summary'):
-            self.summary = entry.get('summary').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.summary = entry.get('summary')
         if entry.has_key('content'):
-            self.content = entry.get('content')[0].value.encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.content = entry.get('content')[0].value
         if entry.has_key('author'):
-            self.author = entry.get('author').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            self.author = entry.get('author')
         if entry.has_key('updated_parsed'):
             updated_parsed = entry.get('updated_parsed')
             self.updated = datetime.fromtimestamp(mktime(updated_parsed))
@@ -137,15 +137,14 @@ class Entry(Base):
             print 'enclosures';
             pp=pprint.PrettyPrinter(depth=4)
             pp.pprint(entry.get('enclosures'))
-            #self.enclosures = entry.get('enclosures').encode('latin-1', 'replace')
+            #self.enclosures = entry.get('enclosures')
         self.lastfetched = datetime.now()
 
 
 def send_mail(sender, receiver, subject, body):
-    subject = subject.decode('latin-1')
-    print 'sending to %s: %s' % (receiver.decode('latin-1'), subject)
+    print 'sending to %s: %s' % (receiver, subject)
     mail = MIMEText(body, _charset='utf-8')
-    mail['From'] = sender
+    mail['From'] = sender.encode('utf-8')
     mail['To'] = receiver
     mail['Subject'] = subject
     mailserver = smtplib.SMTP('localhost')
@@ -162,7 +161,6 @@ def get_entry_text(entry):
         text = entry.summary
     else:
         text = 'no text, sorry'
-    text = text.decode('latin-1')
     return text
 
 def mail_daily_digest(session, sender, receiver, prefix):
@@ -184,7 +182,7 @@ def mail_daily_digest(session, sender, receiver, prefix):
             link = entry.resolvedlink
         try:
             body = body + '=> %s - %s\n' % (entry.firstfetched.strftime('%y%m%d-%H%M'), feedinfo.title)
-            body = body + '   %s\n' % entry.title.decode('latin-1')
+            body = body + '   %s\n' % entry.title
             body = body + '%s\n' % get_entry_text(entry)[0:100]
             body = body + '%s\n\n' % link
         except:
@@ -282,9 +280,7 @@ def process_feed_entry(session, feed, entry):
             h2t.body_width = 0
             if feed.html2textignoreimages:
                 h2t.ignore_images = True
-            summary = thisentry.summary.decode('latin-1')
-            summary = h2t.handle(summary)
-            thisentry.summary = summary.encode('latin-1')
+            thisentry.summary = h2t.handle(thisentry.summary)
         feed.entry.append(thisentry)
         session.commit()
         return 1
@@ -330,7 +326,7 @@ if __name__ == '__main__':
     config = ConfigParser.ConfigParser()
     config.read('atomstrom.conf')
 
-    dbconnectstring = '%s://%s:%s@%s/%s' % (
+    dbconnectstring = '%s://%s:%s@%s/%s?charset=utf8' % (
         config.get('database', 'engine'),
         config.get('database', 'user'),
         config.get('database', 'password'),