>Why don't you use the PICMicro for debouncing the button?  This will
>certainly minimize the number of components you need.
Only because I can't: the PIC will be VERY busy doing other things while
the user is pushing buttons. As I said in the first note, I can't use
interrupts (they're already all used up for other things), so I really do
need to "externally" store the buttons presses for later polling when the
PIC has time.

Thanks for the suggestion, though! And BTW your book was ENORMOUSLY
helpful...

Dave