Regarding the quote, I guess since I made lots of mistakes, I made SOMETHING.

SUCCESS! I can ICD compile and debug my program on a 16F628a
  • I wasn't using the full config string as you had said is necessary because #CONFIG sets everything back to default.
  • My bad habit of doing this: TRISB=%0000000 instead of really looking at what the pins are doing got me. PortB.1 is Rx and is an input, not an output. I've been doing outputs-only for so long, it never dawned on me I'd need an input...
Thanks again for your support and your suggestions. It made me really want to fix this thing to the point where I was anal about it. The advice you gave is much better than those who say, "RTFM".

The serial loop back program was really good too because it allowed me to verify my circuit, comm from PC, comm to chip. Good stuff.