intermittent error messages

Okay, why do I get this error message: "DB Error: unknown option portability" sometimes but not others?

This is the code I'm running:

DB_PORTABILITY_ALL, 'ssl'=>true, 'debug'=>2);

$db=&DB::connect($dsn,$options);  

if(DB::isError($db)){
	die($db->getMessage());
}

//PEAR_Error::getDebugInfo();

$query="select fldChild_FName, fldChild_LName from tblChild";
echo $query."
";

$db->setFetchMode(DB_FETCHMODE_ASSOC);
 
$result=&$db->getAll($query);

if(DB::isError($result)){
	die($result->getMessage());
} 


echo "";
echo "";

foreach($result as $names){ 
	echo "";
}

echo "
First Name
Last Name
".$names['fldchild_fname']."
".$names['fldchild_lname']."

";


//print_r($result);

$db->disconnect();

?>

I'm not doing anything differently, but when I reload the page, sometimes it gives me the printout I'm expecting and sometimes it just gives me that error. I don't get it.

Help? I'm pretty new to PEAR, though not PHP in general.