holy crow.
i was planning on setting up a breadboard to do ICSP on the thing... i'll still give that a go, while i'm waiting for my shipment from meLabs!
i have used the 12F parts [8 pin] with the standard ZIF with great success, and just assumed... yeah, right.
it is still possible to be smarter than yesterday.

thankyou kind Charles for waking me from my stupor.