Moving Clips in track

I am missing something basic. When I record, I like to get several takes, then audition them and move the best one to the top row of the track, usually put my second choice on next row down, and maybe keep a third. So I spend a lot of time moving clips up and down in a tack using Shift (To keep the clip from moving sideways) / click and drag. The problem is that I often can't click on a clip far enough away from an envelope to keep from putting the track in "envelope mode" (or whatever it's called where the clips are not selected and can't be moved, but the envelopes can.) There has to be a simple way to do this, since no one else appears to be having this problem. Help please. This is no fun at all. Thanks Hmmm. Why do all the carriage returns I put in this post get ignored when I post it?

 FBB: Bingo. You're right on the money. Thank you. Curious about your wife's line. MY wife's only reference to time is that she uses me as an egg timer. (ba-dum, crash! with Apologies to Rodney D.)