Parallels: Invisible Virtual Machine Desktops in OS X 10.5

I should have figured this out sooner but many times I just chase ghosts. For two months I have been troubleshooting why my Parallels VMs would not gain focus. I would start them manually from the .pvs file but all I would get is a white XP cursor. If I moved the cursor or typed anything it would disappear and be totally inaccessible. I reinstalled Parallels a dozen times, removing all traces of the app, but nothing worked. I even tried to convert my work VM over to VMWare Fusion but it wouldn't let me, saying the VM was not shut down properly (after 15 minutes of churn). Then, the epiphany, I had assigned Parallels to a different virtual desktop with Spaces and was no longer using it because of a second monitor. I enabled Spaces, switched to Space 2, and there she was. I can now work on heinous .NET applications without rebooting once more.