diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 019a72a..48982d3 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ demo:
 	printf "demo\nABlog\nABlog Team\nhttp://ablog.readthedocs.org" | ablog start
 
 install:
-	sudo pip install -U --no-deps --force-reinstall .
+	pip install -U --no-deps --force-reinstall .
 
 rebuild:
 	cd docs; watchmedo shell-command --patterns='*.rst' --command='ablog build' --recursive
diff --git a/ablog/__init__.py b/ablog/__init__.py
index 141c486..17b8337 100755
--- a/ablog/__init__.py
+++ b/ablog/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ from .post import (PostDirective, PostListDirective, UpdateDirective,
                    generate_archive_pages, generate_atom_feeds,
                    missing_reference)
 
-__version__ = '0.7.2'
+__version__ = '0.7.3'
 
 
 def anchor(post):
@@ -61,4 +61,4 @@ def get_html_templates_path():
     """Return path to ABlog templates folder."""
 
     pkgdir = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
-    return os.path.join(pkgdir, 'templates')
\ No newline at end of file
+    return os.path.join(pkgdir, 'templates')
diff --git a/ablog/post.py b/ablog/post.py
index 628b4ac..a528993 100644
--- a/ablog/post.py
+++ b/ablog/post.py
@@ -5,7 +5,10 @@ import os
 import sys
 from string import Formatter
 from datetime import datetime
-from dateutil.parser import parse as date_parser
+try:
+    from dateutil.parser import parse as date_parser
+except ImportError:
+    date_parser = None
 
 from docutils import nodes
 from sphinx.locale import _
@@ -264,10 +267,17 @@ def process_posts(app, doctree):
         date = node['date']
         if date:
             try:
-                #date = datetime.strptime(date, post_date_format)
-                date = date_parser(date)
+                date = datetime.strptime(date, post_date_format)
             except ValueError:
-                raise ValueError('invalid post published date in: ' + docname)
+                if date_parser:
+                    try:
+                        date = date_parser(date)
+                        print('using date parser')
+                    except ValueError:
+                        raise ValueError('invalid post date in: ' + docname)
+                else:
+                    raise ValueError('invalid post date in: ' + docname)
+
         else:
             date = None
 
diff --git a/docs/release/ablog-v0.7-released.rst b/docs/release/ablog-v0.7-released.rst
index e092c41..fdfc5a1 100644
--- a/docs/release/ablog-v0.7-released.rst
+++ b/docs/release/ablog-v0.7-released.rst
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ ABlog v0.7.1 released
    :category: Release
    :location: SF
 
-ABlog v0.7.1 is released to fix Python 3 import issues in :command:`ablog serve` command.
+ABlog v0.7.1 is released to fix Python 3 import issues in :command:`ablog serve`
+command.
 
 
 ABlog v0.7.2 released
@@ -34,4 +35,20 @@ ABlog v0.7.2 released
 
 ABlog v0.7.2 is released to prevent potential issues with Disqus thread URLs
 by requiring :confval:`disqus_shortname` and :confval:`blog_baseurl`
-to be specified together for Disqus integration.
\ No newline at end of file
+to be specified together for Disqus integration.
+
+
+ABlog v0.7.3 released
+---------------------
+
+.. post:: July 4 2015
+   :author: Ahmet
+   :category: Release
+   :location: SF
+
+ABlog v0.7.3 makes use of `python-dateutil`_ for parsing post dates, so that you
+can be flexible with the format you use with dates. Thanks to `Andy Maloney`_
+for this improvement.
+
+.. _python-dateutil: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-dateutil
+.. _Andy Maloney: https://github.com/amaloney