Grace,
Yes, you are making complete sense to me. The number you gave me is actually the version for phpMyAdmin.
Here is a plugin that you can use to determine your WP and PHP version:
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/health-check/
Just be sure to deactivate it afterwards, otherwise you’ll forever be staring at the notice in the Admin menu.
However, as I had suspicioned, you are running some variant of PHP 5.2.x. (I was able to duplicate the error.) I was able to modify my code base to support 5.3.x, but my code makes frequent use of language constructs only available above 5.2. This makes it impossible for my plugin to support your installation.
I am not going to be one of these people to tell you to upgrade. If your site is working, then I would leave it alone. But be aware PHP 5.2 may be archived in the very near future as 5.5 has been released.
I hope that you do not harbor any animosity or feel that this has been a waste of your time. I have been able to make beneficial changes and should you update and try to activate my plugin, you’ll get a more friendly error message (Not that this will ultimately be any help for you.)
Again, thank you for putting in the support ticket and should you upgrade your installation at some point in the future, we can continue our conversation.
Anthony