upgrade path question

hey there, good people . . . this is a pretty lame question; fortunately, i'm old enough that lame doesn't bother me all that much anymore. it's been awhile since i burned a kernel, built open office from source, or built kde -- the way we used to, say, 15 years ago (i even once wrote a piece about whether it took longer to compile all of kde than it did to drive from connecticut to key west -- http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3420/1 ). so now there's a new version of the real, useful kde, now known as tde. i'm on ubuntu 12.04LTS. time to do a general upgrade. what i'm seeking is advice as to the easiest, least-annoying way to upgrade both operating system and tde -- i'm using 3.5.13.2 -- without breaking, well, anything. i've kept the same configurations for ages. i like them. many took days to sort out and i forgot how i did them. so. anyone here have a decent recipe for upgrading the whole thing all at once, rebooting, and having what i have, only better? -- dep The shortest distance between you and playing great acoustic guitar: the great new instructional DVDs from Marjorie Thompson, available at www.MarjorieThompson.com