as Jeff Pohlmeyer pointed out, first get the multi handle _then_ use it

  printf("About to do %d connections\n", num_total);

  /* initialize the timeout event */

  evtimer_set(&timerevent, timercallback, multi_handle);

  /* init the multi stack */

  multi_handle = curl_multi_init();

  /* initialize the timeout event */

  evtimer_set(&timerevent, timercallback, multi_handle);

  for(i=0; i< num_total; i++) {

    CURL *e;