The wires on the battery holder are thin and malleable unlike the regular wires, so I can't get them to stay inside the breadboard. Any ideas?

There are a couple of ways. Both involve soldering. 1, tin the leads to stiffen them up. I think they come tinned but it might have gotten soft on you. 2, solder on a little piece of solid wire to the ends of the leads that can more easily go into the little holes.

Thanks. I don't have a soldering iron so I ended up just doing 2 with electrical tape. =D It works wonders. Will have to make it more permanent once I have a soldering iron.

I had the same problem. We used two pieces of the stiff wire and connected the battery leads with wire nuts. Works great now.

had same problem... attached two pieces of the solid wire, but its not soldered yet just twisted on i need to run to the radio shack later and get more solder.

My other problem was that i misread the pin assigment on the higher numbered pins on the lcd.

After these two fixes and a broken wire replaced its happily saying Hardware is ok.

I am going to like playing with this. Richard

I did find the multimeter i purchased was essential in verifying voltages and continuity. It helped me find the broken wire.