rake 0.8.7 db:migrate or db:seed runtime error, "stack level too deep"

Rake 0.8.7
Rails 2.3.18
RubyGems 1.7.2

I looked into the similar questions and they do not apply here:

Not doing any recursion in the task
Not using Bundler or RVM (if using bundler is the solution then I'm screwed)
Not including ActionView::Helpers
Not using a gem named scrubyt
Altering the code to use a transaction does not fix it.

Braindead simple row update. Same result if I run it as a migration or a seed.

class AddValuesForPlanApiQuotaDaily < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up

    p = Plan.find(10)
    p.api_quota_daily = 3000
    p.save!

  end
end

Or from db/seeds.rb:

p = Plan.find(10)

if p.api_quota_daily.nil?

    p.api_quota_daily = 3000
    p.save!

end

Result:

$ rake db:seed --trace
** Invoke db:seed (first_time)
** Invoke environment (first_time)
** Execute environment
** Execute db:seed
rake aborted!
stack level too deep

Trace:

/home/fun/dev/company/project/vendor/plugins/deadlock_retry/lib/deadlock_retry.rb:45:in `transaction_without_deadlock_handling'
/home/fun/dev/company/project/vendor/plugins/deadlock_retry/lib/deadlock_retry.rb:45:in `transaction'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.18/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:200:in `save!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.18/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:208:in `rollback_active_record_state!'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activerecord-2.3.18/lib/active_record/transactions.rb:200:in `save!'
/home/fun/dev/company/project/db/seeds.rb:8
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.18/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:171:in `load_without_new_constant_marking'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.18/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:171:in `load'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.18/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:547:in `new_constants_in'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/activesupport-2.3.18/lib/active_support/dependencies.rb:171:in `load'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rails-2.3.18/lib/tasks/databases.rake:211
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `call'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:636:in `execute'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `each'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:631:in `execute'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:597:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/monitor.rb:242:in `synchronize'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:590:in `invoke_with_call_chain'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:583:in `invoke'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2051:in `invoke_task'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `each'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2029:in `top_level'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2023:in `top_level'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2001:in `run'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:2068:in `standard_exception_handling'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake.rb:1998:in `run'
/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/bin/rake:31
/usr/bin/rake:19:in `load'
/usr/bin/rake:19

Cannot upgrade rake or start using bundler for this project.

Solution

Another option which actually words, do it with raw SQL in a migration:

class AddValuesToPlanApiQuotas < ActiveRecord::Migration
  def self.up
  plan_id_api_limits = {
      10 => 3000,
      20 => 3000,
      30 => 5000,
      40 => 10000,
      50 => 20000,
      60 => 35000
    }
    plan_id_api_limits.each do |k,v|
      query = "UPDATE plans set api_quota_daily = #{v} where id=#{k}"
      ActiveRecord::Base.connection.execute(query);
    end
  end

end

I just cannot apparently use ActiveRecord inside rake migrations or seed tasks at 0.8.7.