I've been holding off finalizing my Italy photos because of the problems with Lightroom 1.4, which of course I upgraded to the instant I got home from Italy. I've been waiting for them to release a fix, for over a week now to no avail. In re-reading the post, I discovered that uninstalling does not require me to delete all my preference files as I had originally thought. I will go a head and put LR 1.3.1 back on (there's not that much of an upgrade anyway), and finish those photos.
...erm but not tonight b/c I'm going to a football match: Brazil v. Sweeden. Should be a fun, wet, time.