using xml to set the selectableRange of a datechooser

I have a rather complicated problem - I am creating a little flash file that will be sent out to a range of different sites and I want to be able to control the selectableRange of a datechooser on that file. I thought it would be easy to link up an xml file (that I host) and then read the dates into variables which can then be used to set the selectableRange parameter... but no.

I have tried using the xmlconnector with a dataholder and a dataset but haven't found a way to get the data into the code which sets the selectableRange.

my xml looks like this:
<availDates>
<year>2006</year>
<month>7</month>
<day>13</day>
</availDates>

Any suggestions?