Hey. No worries. There's no schedule. I got home late tonight and didn't feel like giving myself a headache trying my htpc anyways.
About the J1...duct tape? JK. I could probably swing by the microcenter by my house (basically an electronics wal mart if you don't have one) and see if they have something like a JST that would work. Even if you just had a female JST on solid core wire, strip it and plug it into the arduino that might work to bypass the shield right?