good choices.
my first sample order, a couple weeks ago, was some 16f628's, because I was using them at the time anyway, and also some 12f675 and 12f629, so I'd have some nice, small PICs to use for simple stuff where I'd rather not wire up a bunch of passives and integrated circuits for something...
this time around, I went with an '877, an '876, an '819 (similar to the 16f628 but has A/D, which I may need for some things) and a couple of I2C EEPROMs (24LC16B 16k, and a 24LC256 256k) for later experiments where I need more storage space than the dinky data EEPROM provides.
I love microchip
free samples rule.
one thing that my boss this summer at a semiconductor manufacturing plant told me, is that while it may seem sort of greedy for students to get a bunch of free PICs, the company is willing to give them to us, as many of us will likely grow up to be engineers, and when that time comes, we're a lot more likely to use their products after getting a ton of experience with them.