I went back and cut the commercials and Zell rocketing in.
Anything I disliked did not make the cut (the first post has been updated).
For the scene that wouldn't sync I just cut the audio up and did several crossfades to sync regions. It works well. I even added some ambient effects and wind (there's a cut of wind blowing through foliage and it doesn't make noise. Pretty jarring, fixed it.)
Well the initial edit is done. I still need to export, build a DVD, preview, make any changes and produce all the extras.
I think the worst is over... mostly.