diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index b2f557d7d61..e7e6c1dfe49 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ Release 0.19.0 - Unreleased
                connection and shut themselves down
    HBASE-919   Master and Region Server need to provide root region location if
                they are using HTable
+               With J-D's one line patch, test cases now appear to work and
+               PerformanceEvaluation works as before.
 
   IMPROVEMENTS
    HBASE-901   Add a limit to key length, check key and value length on client side
diff --git a/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseClusterTestCase.java b/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseClusterTestCase.java
index 2faed049311..b24ce656579 100644
--- a/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseClusterTestCase.java
+++ b/src/test/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/HBaseClusterTestCase.java
@@ -90,6 +90,9 @@ public abstract class HBaseClusterTestCase extends HBaseTestCase {
     // start the mini cluster
     this.cluster = new MiniHBaseCluster(conf, regionServers);
     // opening the META table ensures that cluster is running
+    // We need to sleep because we cannot open a HTable when the cluster
+    // is not ready
+    Thread.sleep(5000);
     HTable meta = new HTable(conf, ".META.");
   }