[vox-tech] feeding a bash variable to date?

[Gandalf Parker]

this works
  date -d '2009-11-06 17:07:54 32 hours'

this works
offset="'2009-11-06 17:07:54 32 hours'"

This does not work
date -d $offset

this seems to work but doesnt
echo $offset |date -d -

Im trying to automate running the turn host on a Dominions 3 game 32 hours 
after the previous hosting. For now Im trying to just diplay the values 
on a webpage. So Im picking up the date of the previously 
generated file
hosted=`stat --format=%z Pangaea.trn | cut -d. -f1 `
and trying to display a time 32 hours after that. Then Id like to be able 
to display a counter on the webpage if I can figure out how to show "which 
will be X from now"

Ive given up on Epoch time (my math sucks). I might have to do some basic 
programming on it but Im really surprised I have to go that far.

Gandalf  Parker