You missed the first part of my problem:
The problem was that I had deleted AM, but it was still crashing

thanks.
I had no idea they recreated themselves. It was really freaking me out

I've tried doing everything everyone says to do:
- delete AwesomeMod
- delete the 4 *cache.package files
- uninstalled the game (so now I'm running the base game)

but my game keeps crashing (although I didn't get the core mismatch warning)

Then I realized that every time I deleted the *cache files, they showed up in my documents\electronicarts\thesims3 folder again!
And the thing is that they're not even the original files... they show that the date modified was today

what is going on

oh thank god it worked!
Thanks for that link jenreth

but does anyone know why I can't uninstall awesomemod?

I have the same issue.
I'm currently running the base game (I uninstalled and reinstalled the game)
I deleted the awesomemod file, *cache.package files
but it's still there.

I have this problem with all my installed content. I have tried deleting tons of stuff, but with no results 

Would it be possible to revive the wanton trait?
I have some sluts in my game who I wish would act just a little bit more wanton...

And I can't wait to see how the racist trait turns out