Photographers...I need your help.

If there's any photographers out there who's reading my blog, I need you help. I am very interested in learning photography but I know very little about it. I plan to make it a hobby for now and then move on to doing sports photography, wedding, and portraits. I am looking in to buying DSLR but I don't know which one. Any suggestions? So far the Canon 40D and the Nikon D90 looks apealing to me but I could not decide between the two. I like the ruggedness of the body of the Canon. I do not have much money so I plan on keeping this below $1200 max of $1500. Any advice would be great. Thank so much.