When I find that I visit a site that often, I subscribe to the rss feed. I use keywords for searches: / for google, m-w for merriam-webster, and so on.
I use http://yubnub.org in the Firefox search bar for that. It has commands for nearly every search you could imagine. I'm a bit of a command-line-geek, so that likely factors into its appeal for me.
When I find that I visit a site so often that I habitually key in the first few characters, hit down, and hit enter, it is time to bookmark it and give it a keyword (in a bookmark's properties). After doing so, (as an example) if I go to the bar and type 'hn' and hit enter, it automatically takes me to http://news.ycombinator.com/. I think using this feature would benefit you, and maybe ease your hatred to mild distaste, and, just maybe, eventually you'll even _like_ the Awesome Bar.
I wish you luck.