| thanks redlemon...
 they didn't work, either method.  *but* i did figure out WHY.... i feel dumb about it, but i'm going to post the solution in the interest of science.  uh, yeah.
 
 i guess it was all just a settings issue.  i had disabled the setting about "allow websites to install software" or something like that.  so once i reenabled that, both methods allowed it.
 
 so anyway, it works again. i'll just have to enable/disable whenever i want to install extensions.
 
				__________________aaarrrrrgggghhhh!!!!
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