Final score: Elliptical, 1. Sarah, 0.

I surrender. I spent another two hours finishing up the elliptical, and damn it looks good. Then I plugged it in, and NOTHING. Blew on the plug, flipped it around, and tried it again. Still, NOTHING. Was getting a Christmas Vacation flashback where he can't get the lights to turn on. I'm sure it's something I did in putting it together, but the wiring was back in step 3 out of 11. Plus the machine is crazy loud. I was under the impression it would be whisper-soft and wouldn't wake the neighbors. Cue an 8 a.m. phone call to the Nordictrack helpdesk, and supposedly someone will be coming out to see how tragically I put this thing together. Hoping he can fix it, because I had to rip apart all the boxes to even get this monstrosity into my apartment, so no clue how I would send it back (assuming I can). Sweet!!

Not to mention the plethora of bruises that are still brewing under the surface on both arms and legs. Good thing it's not bathing suit season anymore.