Startup issues

[Steven DeWitt]

Good morning,

This morning when I turn on my iMac (Intel), it takes forever to  
start up, and then it makes a dozen or more attempts to load the  
desktop, and then the desktop is almost unresponsive after that. I  
know this is a dumb question, but I've never had a problem on a Mac  
before -- what should I do next?

Writing from my iBook which thankfully I backed up my files to last  
night,

Steven