+1 to http://dgc.cryptocoinmine.com/   Great pool. I love not being overshadowed by 30,000khs miners like in the other pools.  NOTE: PPLNS won't pay out until 5 or 6 blocks are found and confirmed on the pool itself.  It's a smaller pool so it might take a little while but there's a nice share-per-block average. Don't forget to "add your worker" on the webpage after starting an account or you will be unable to connect to LP or Stratum.

Admin also does a great job with any mining issues.  


As for the wallet sync issue: I do what barritus recommended awhile back delete all wallet files but your config and your wallet .dat and restart.  It scared the crap out of me the first time I did it but it reconnected.  There are instructions on page 1 at the bottom of post 1.  Works ok for a week or so after that.