I have no problem pulling the atmega. It looks like there's a small gap for a really small flathead to fit on the ends. I'll just pop it off.
I may need to wait until Sunday to get to microcenter and see what kind of connecter I can find or fashion.
I hope that Veear can offer something. If nothing else, Sparkfun told me that if Veear says that the shield may be faulty, they will exchange it for me at no cost. I actually emailed Veear the day before I got onto this forum. Haven't heard anything yet. My inquiry probably sounded like someone that hadn't put much effort into finding anything out on my own though so I'm not surprised.