Robert, Microchip sells a complete demo board, PicDem2 Plus, bundled with an ICD2 programmer. I don't know what your budget is, but I think this is the way to go. Trying to build up your own circuits on a proto board can be an excersize in frustration if you don't know electronics at all.

The PicDem board has sockets for several different Pics as well as actual samples of those Pics for you to try. The board also has working, proven circuits that let you implement all the functions of each Pic- A/D, RS232, LCD, blinky lights, and many more. I believe just about all the PBP sample programs can be configured and compiled to run on this board.

It comes complete with schematics and parts lists. Once you figure out how to get all the different parts working, and you want to spin a board of your own, you can just clone and/or modify those parts of the schematics that interest you, and, since you'll be a PBP expert by then, you won't have any problems getting it all to work together.

Klaus