Address Book names and groups are gone - forever?

Hmmm.
After I added two names to Address Book from a message header in Mail, I noticed a duplicate name and selected the menu item to merge the two "cards."
Boom, as teh steve would say, several groups and over a hundred names are gone, now.
Only two names remain—the name I was adding and the duplicate name I was merging
(the one with the wrong spelling, ironically).
No undo was available. Nothing appeared in the trash. No, "Are you sure?" No warning messages about the change having no recourse, etc.
I've already had 2 very stiff drinks (I'm over 21 and do not intend to drive and feel otherwise socially responsible and do not condone irresponsible behaviour, etc., etc., etc.)
Any ideas about recovering any data would be REALLY helpful. Thank you.
I notice there's a way to back up the Address Book data. Gee, that's really nice to know, now.
Edit: OS is 10.4.11 with this problem
Message was edited by: stan

Sorry Stan... have you rebooted yet?
Look & see if you have a file like this...
Address Book - 7:31:08.abbu
Date will be different.
In finder go to /Users/YourUserName/Library/Application Support/AddressBook
see if there are any files like this in it...
AddressBook.data
Images
AddressBook.data.previous
ABPerson.skIndexInverted
.import.lockN
.skIndex.ABPerson.lockN
.database.lockN
AddressBook.data.beforesave
ABPerson.skIndex
LastImport.plist
If it's really gone, quit using the computer if you wish a chance to recover it.

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