Code review 7/8 *do not merge*

- refactor code by wrapping hard-to-read operations in more easier-to-read methods
- models need some love --- I found some non-model-belonging code in there as well as models with no validation (a little scary)
- we're hurting big time in terms of test coverage. NEED to get on this sooner rather than later. get model specs in place, then move on to integration tests and jasmine
https://github.com/velesin/jasmine-jquery
https://github.com/pivotal/jasmine-gem
- javascript can be greatly refactored by modularizing/namespacing code using object literals... refer back to cookies and ovens!