I recommend
picking up one of the Xilinx-based Digilent boards.
They're inexpensive and very nice. Xilinx has a freely-downloadable
toolchain (WebPACK) that works very well. It even has "real" Linux
support nowadays. The free stuff supports all but the very largest of
their FPGAs.
Dave, I have everything set up, but still no "start here"...VHDL seems
easy, but I just don't know where to start! :oO