ok, happy to report that a new install of the full version worked fine. i didnt even have to trash the old install (just renamed the folder and moved the esellerate key to the new data/config folder).
thx for everyones help
im hoping for the final patch release at the end of the month, either the patch itself will work fine or we can just be told to d/l the full version (updated to the new version) right away so we dont have to go thru this again.