ActiveRecord db:create error

Hi!

I've begun the Active Record Deep Dive and have run into an error that I want to clear up before moving forward.

When I tried to run rake db:create I was met with this error:

Couldn't create database for {"adapter"=>"mysql2", "encoding"=>"utf8", "pool"=>5, "username"=>"root", "password"=>nil, "host"=>"localhost", "database"=>"timely_development"}, {:charset=>"utf8", :collation=>"utf8_unicode_ci"}
(If you set the charset manually, make sure you have a matching collation)

I actually get that error twice with just the one command.

I've looked at StackOverflow, but either the proposed fixes don't work for me, or I don't understand them. (I'm too much of a SO n00b to be able to make comments, so I can't clarify people's answers.)

Any help would be SUPREMELY appreciated.

For what it's worth, I can successfully start the mysql server, and my database.yml file looks like this:

default: &default
  adapter: mysql2
  encoding: utf8
  pool: 5
  username: root
  password:
  host: localhost

development:
  <<: *default
  database: timely_development

 ### Comments omitted for brevity's sake

  <<: *default
  database: timely_test

 ### More comments omitted

production:
  <<: *default
  database: timely_production
  username: timely
  password: <%= ENV['TIMELY_DATABASE_PASSWORD'] %>

Thanks for your time!

EDIT: Jeez, I don't know how it happened, but I ran the 'rake db:create' command for the millionth time, and it worked! I can't provide any insight into how it worked, and for that I am sorry! Good luck!