Hey!
I solved it. Thanks for the help!
No. really, I did solve it.
I had my host upgrade to the suPHP. This was their reply when I asked about the WordPress upgrade issue:
Your currently PHP version is 5.2.9. However you are using the DSO php handler. In order to be able to successfully do automatic updates you would need to switch to SuPHP, as the permissions of DSO and generally how it functions, while it works with WordPress not all features would be available (such as automatic updates or automatic installation of WordPress addons). I suspect the reason you are having trouble with the manual update as well is because of the permissions associated with DSO. Would you mind if I switched you over to use the SuPHP module?
I then did the manual upgrade again. At first it appeared that it did not work. It did the database upgrade..then poof, I was logged in as the admin. I am not exactly certain why it stalled at first and then let me in.
