diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE
similarity index 96%
rename from LICENSE.txt
rename to LICENSE
index fc557c2..4bb16c5 100644
--- a/LICENSE.txt
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 The MIT License (MIT)
 
-Copyright (c) 2013 Ryn Daniels
+Copyright (c) 2013 Katherine Daniels
 
 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of
 this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in
diff --git a/pysensu/pysensu.py b/pysensu/pysensu.py
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 4fc7614..93e5a29
--- a/pysensu/pysensu.py
+++ b/pysensu/pysensu.py
@@ -5,36 +5,38 @@
 
 
 class Pysensu():
-    def __init__(self, host, user=None, password=None, port=4567, ssl=False):
+    def __init__(self, host, user=None, password=None, port=4567, ssl=False, timeout=None):
         self.host = host
         self.user = user
         self.password = password
         self.port = port
         self.ssl = ssl
+
+        self.session = requests.Session()
+
+        if (user and not password) or (password and not user):
+            raise ValueError("Must specify both user and password, or neither")
+
+        self.session.auth = (user, password)
         self.api_url = self._build_api_url(host, user, password, port, ssl)
+        self.timeout = timeout
 
     def _build_api_url(self, host, user, password, port, ssl):
         if ssl == True:
             protocol = 'https'
         else:
             protocol = 'http'
-        if user and password:
-            credentials = "{}:{}@".format(user, password)
-        elif (user and not password) or (password and not user):
-            raise ValueError("Must specify both user and password, or neither")
-        else:
-            credentials = ""
-        return "{}://{}{}:{}".format(protocol, credentials, host, port)
+        return "{}://{}:{}".format(protocol, host, port)
 
     def _api_call(self, url, method, data=None):
         if method == "post":
-            return requests.post(url, data=data)
+            return self.session.post(url, data=data, timeout=self.timeout)
         elif method == "get":
-            return requests.get(url, data=data)
+            return self.session.get(url, data=data, timeout=self.timeout)
         elif method == "put":
-            return requests.put(url, data=data)
+            return self.session.put(url, data=data, timeout=self.timeout)
         elif method == "delete":
-            return requests.delete(url, data=data)
+            return self.session.delete(url, data=data, timeout=self.timeout)
         else:
             raise ValueError("Invalid method")