Once again, Heather Nova's words ring true.
I got my projector on Friday. I spent the better part of this weekend reconfiguring my entire living room to accomodate this change, as well as taking care of some long overdue organizing.
As recommended, I didn't buy a screen until I could try it out at home and verify that it worked well at the desired size. I actually got surprisingly decent results projecting it onto my slightly greenish wall. A friend of mine said, "it's just optimized for Shrek". As it turned out, watching football on the big screen was quite alright. I didn't actually get to play much with my DVD player as I was preoccupied rearranging and watching football, but it sounds like I've got a bunch of expensive cabling purchases in my near future. Hopefully I can get my screen in time for the big game on Sat.