@ ChadS. I am fairly new to strobism myself, But one one thing I have learned is that the more you do, the more you want. If you buy a Canon 430 or 580 flash first, you will have enough flexibility to figure out what type of work your going to do or want to do in the future. Then, once you get comfortable with the one light, you will know what you want/need to build your system. The flipside is if you go to a purely manual flash first, you will really learn alot about light and how it effects your subject and shooting style. The thing with manual flash is that your subject (and you) have to be patient enough for you to get it right---lots of trial and error. I know this probably isn't much help but is something to think about.

I don't have any experience with the lumopro flash units, but I can highly recommend the Vivitar 285hv--it has decent power, works well, and is very inexpensive. The Vivitar 385 also has built in slave function.

@InD and Bigblue---Thanks for the reminder, I am going to ad Syl's book to my collection---I have really enjoyed his video's and teaching style.