wrong path in sidebar links

summary: the links returned by wp_list_pages() and wp_list_cats() suddenly stopped having /wordpress but still have the correct /?page_id=X.

the links without /wordpress (www.mydomain.com/?page_id=9, for example) all drop me back to my index page at root.

i am using the static front page plugin.

everything -was- working perfectly and i have no idea what caused them to stop.

possible causes:
1. code. no code i wrote should have affected this and i undid all of it just in case. not fixed.

2. my provider updated my account somewhere between me knowing it was working and things breaking. based on other posts, i have been in contact with them about .htaccess and mod_rewrite.

in regards to mod_rewrite: “mod_rewrite is loaded on the server.”

in regards to .htaccess, it exists in the root directory of my account and is empty. i had never touched it before, and everything was working. after this unexplained break, i temporarily gave it 666 permission, but that didn’t fix the problem.

3. i have nothing set in my permalink options (all blank fields). based on another post, i tried hitting the update button for this to. nothing fixed.

4. (possibly important). in the admin options, if i type something into the field Blog address (URI) and hit save… nothing saves! it remains blank. i’m pretty sure i played with that before and was able to save data in that field, but now… nothing.

any help would be appreciated, i’ve put a full day into this (and my hosting company is helping too!) and so far, nothing pans out.

thank you times a million…