Though I finally figured it out I still don't understand why the /u:administrator switch didn't work since I am the administrator.

If anyone who can explain this and who doesn't mind keeping this thread open long enough to do so would, I would be really appreciative.
Please accept this as an educated guess rather than a definitive technical explanation, but I believe that foxy~ has it right.

I haven't really played with Windows 7 that much, but Windows creates a default administrator account of its own when you install it. In addition the first user account that you create is defaulted to be a member of the administrators group.

AFAIK, the default administrator account only shows up when you log in into safe mode, and the default password is blank. I have seen the default account use the same password as the original user, but I am not sure if that was Windows or the user altering it afterwards.

The bottom line is that I believe that the default admin account is only available in safe mode, which would be why your first command failed?

If anyone knows better, please enlighten us.