Update to the Garmin issue: I finally got through to Tech Support (only 45 mins on hold) and was told that "It takes a while for Vista to initialize the update. So be patient." Apparently I had succeeded in downloading the update but it wasn't installed because I had lost my patience before (after 10 mins) and stopped it.

While I was on the phone with the customer service rep (who was very nice, btw) the Vista circle (which replaced the hour glass) just churned on the screen. So after I hung up, I walked away from the computer less I should try to stop the update process like I had before.

When I came back, the update was progressing quite nicely. It did take about 30 mins to complete the update though despite the fact that the Garmin was connected via highspeed USB and we have a FiOS connection at home.

While I was on hold for 45 minutes, I wondered to myself if the other people who were calling in were calling because they couldn't get their updates to properly update too as this was around the date that the 'free download/update' would expire and after that you have to pay upwards of $30-60 to update your Garmin.