Thanks for all your help. I had ordered the Travel Trac rollers from performance, but after a week the store rep said ETA for the backorder was another month. I cancelled that and got a new cycleops with resistance from ebay for $250!

Took me about 45mins of persistence to finally get a hang of this sucker! Lessons learned:
1. the thermostat on hallway wall can break if sufficient force is applied
2. white walls get tire marks very easily
3. (Like everyone says) you really have to not think about it too much and not look at the wheels or you'll tend to oversteer/overcompensate. I looked 4-5 feet ahead but had to use peripheral vision and concentrate on what I'm doing.

going to try it with the radio on today. hopefully no more markings on the wall =)