diff --git a/src/com/silverwrist/venice/htmlcheck/impl/HTMLCheckerImpl.java b/src/com/silverwrist/venice/htmlcheck/impl/HTMLCheckerImpl.java
index 1dd4a33..16565f6 100644
--- a/src/com/silverwrist/venice/htmlcheck/impl/HTMLCheckerImpl.java
+++ b/src/com/silverwrist/venice/htmlcheck/impl/HTMLCheckerImpl.java
@@ -834,6 +834,7 @@ class HTMLCheckerImpl implements HTMLChecker, HTMLCheckerBackend, RewriterServic
 		if (config.getProcessParens())
 		{ // we're going into Parens mode...
 		  doFlushString();
+		  paren_level = 0;
 		  state = ST_PAREN;
 
 		} // end if
@@ -1011,9 +1012,11 @@ class HTMLCheckerImpl implements HTMLChecker, HTMLCheckerBackend, RewriterServic
 
     // This is the "end parse" loop, in which we resolve any funny state the parser has
     // found itself in and clear out the internal buffers.
-    boolean running = false;
+    boolean running;
     do
     { // what we do depends on the parser state...
+      running = false;  // make sure we stop unless running is set to true here
+
       switch (state)
       {
 	case ST_WHITESPACE: