I’ve written here about my inability to get organized, so it’s no secret that I have problems with that. Fortunately for me, however, most of the time I am able to lay my hands on whatever it is that I might need when I decide I need it. In that respect, I am happy to say that my lack of organization does not usually affect me in a detrimental manner.

Usually, anyway.

Bored with the same old tired quilt patterns, and with an idea in mind of something I want to do, I decided to install my copy of Electric Quilt 5 on my new computer. I had uninstalled it off the old laptop before giving it to my daughter, but never got around to putting it on my new computer. I figured I would play around with it a little bit and try to decide what I wanted to do with the charms I bought a couple of weeks ago. I knew exactly where the software was, so I figured this would be a five or ten minute install then I could get on with designing my new quilt.

I inserted the CD into my machine and waited eagerly, but after just one minute the Registration screen popped up. It requested the usual things – my name, my address, the serial number.

Uhhhhhh … the serial number? I thought about this for a couple of minutes and quickly turned to the trusty internet for information on where I could find it. Their website told me that I could find the serial number on the Getting Started book. Great, I thought, I saw that book recently. This shouldn’t be too difficult.

That was around noon yesterday and the book is STILL missing. I have practically torn my house apart and it is nowhere to be found. Have you ever seen a 40 year old woman throw a fit and act like a child who’s been denied her favorite treat in the candy store? I made that look innocent. Furious with myself for losing the book, I stormed about the house muttering to myself about the unfairness of it all and how much I suck for not being more organized. I believe there may have been a few naughty words and some very unkind thoughts involved as well.

To be fair, I moved into my house two and a half years ago, and there are still a few boxes hanging around. I went through what I think was all of them but I still may have missed the book. And I don’t know many people who would take a hundred dollar bill and run it through a shredder or set it on fire and watch it burn, which is essentially what I have done by not being able to find that serial number. This would be the second piece of sewing software that would be useless to me without the serial number.

Fortunately for me, the folks at Electric Quilt are extremely nice and helpful. They were able to look up my serial number for me, despite not remembering what name it was registered under (I often use my first name for stuff like this, or my first initial and middle name or just my initials), or even what address I lived at when I bought the software. I was, however, able to narrow down the city and they found it within just a few seconds. Tonight I’ll go home and install it on my new computer and play around with it.

In fact, my birthday is coming up in August, and I’m toying with the idea of asking for the Electric Quilt 6 upgrade … I just wish I knew where that Getting Started book was hiding for EQ5! It might help with remembering how this thing works …