Converting List of String to Integer

[Samir]

Wow!  Thanks for all of the great additional feedback and responses
since I last checked in.  The help this group provides is amazing.
I'm glad I found it.

@Andrew -- Thanks for the clarification on the nested for loop and how
to intrepret it.  Also, thanks for the information on generators.  I
have never come across this before so I will look into it a bit more.
The same thing goes for iPython.  I have been looking for an IDE that
comes with better debugging capabilities that the default Python
shell.

@dusans -- Just when I thought I couldn't simplify my code anymore,
you provide come up with another way.  Thank you.

@ptn -- Thanks for the explanation between "append" and "extend".  I
guess I've gotten lazy and have always used "append", apparently even
in situations where it may not be appropriate.

Thanks again, everyone!

Samir