Well I got around to putting the new t-stat in over the holidays and it fixed the problem. It is possible to change it without removing the timing belt. On a side not the thermostat I bought at Pep-Boys was a Stant. On the box it says "Made in Germany", but the thermostat says "Made in China".

Containing Chinese products!

Whenever the upper hose is hot and the lower is cool, the stat is stuck closed.

I couldn't quite make out what you were trying to say at the end of your post but I don't think replacing your stat with a Pep Boys stat was a good idea unless it only fails "open"(the engine will run cold when it fails).