Horizontal Navigation Bar

Question

I'm using the Spry horizontal menu bar, and I've got a problem.
In IE7, but not in Firefox or Safari or even IE8, the hover state is apparently only active for the text in the submenus, not the entire 'button'.  That is, the list item is styled to look like a button, it's 12 ems wide, the text for most of the items doesn't fill the entire button.  If one puts their mouse over the 'empty' part of the button, it seems that the 'hover' state is lost and the submenu disappears. In the image below, if you mouse over Northside, but leave the mouse on the right side of the 'button', the menu will quickly disappear if using IE7; it stays put when using the other browsers.
Very annoying to the user (and to this developer). 
The site is http://www.acblunit174.org
I wonder if anyone has an explanation?  Is this a known problem with a known workaround?
The css file is included below.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Bert Onstott
713-851-1511.
[email protected]
@charset "UTF-8";
/* SpryMenuBarHorizontal.css - version 0.6 - Spry Pre-Release 1.6.1 */
/* Copyright (c) 2006. Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. */
LAYOUT INFORMATION: describes box model, positioning, z-order
/* The outermost container of the Menu Bar, an auto width box with no margin or padding */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal
    padding:             0;
    list-style-type:     none;
    font-size:           11px;   /* changed font size to 11px */
    cursor:              default;
    width: 900px;
    margin-top: 0;
    margin-right: auto;
    margin-bottom: 0;
    margin-left: auto;
/* Set the active Menu Bar with this class, currently setting z-index to accomodate IE rendering bug: http://therealcrisp.xs4all.nl/meuk/IE-zindexbug.html */
ul.MenuBarActive
    z-index:             1000;
/* Menu item containers, position children relative to this container and are a fixed width */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal li
    margin:              0;
    list-style-type:     none;
    font-size:           100%;
    position:            relative;
    text-align:          left;
    cursor:              pointer;
    width:               auto;     /* set the width to auto for the top level navigation bar items so they fit the text. */
    float:               left;
    padding:             0;
/* Submenus should appear below their parent (top: 0) with a higher z-index, but they are initially off the left side of the screen (-1000em) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul
    margin:              0;
    padding:             0;
    list-style-type:     none;
    font-size:           100%;
    z-index:             1020;
    cursor:              default;
    position:            absolute;
    width:               12em;
    left:                -1000em;
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to auto so it comes onto the screen below its parent menu item */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    left:                auto;
    clear:               left;
/* Menu item containers are seet to 14 ems */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul li
    width:               12em;
/* Submenus should appear slightly overlapping to the right (95%) and up (-5%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul ul
    position:            absolute;
    margin:              -5% 0 0 95%;
/* Submenu that is showing with class designation MenuBarSubmenuVisible, we set left to auto so it comes onto the screen */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible ul.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    left:                auto;
    top:                 0;
DESIGN INFORMATION: describes color scheme, borders, fonts
/* Menu items are a pale green block with padding, no text decoration and what amounts to      */
/* and outset border.  Specifying 'outset' as the border doesn't work in IE with color CCCC99, */
/* so it has to be simulated by specifying different left, right, top and bottom colors.       */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a
    display:             block;   /* causes menu items to appear horizontally */
    cursor:              pointer;
    background-color:    #ECE9D8; /* light green */
    color:               #000000; /* black */
    text-decoration:     none;
    border-top-width:    3px;
    border-right-width:  3px;
    border-bottom-width: 3px;
    border-left-width:   3px;
    border-top-style:    solid;
    border-right-style:  solid;
    border-bottom-style: solid;
    border-left-style:   solid;
    border-top-color:    #CCCC99;  /* dark greem */
    border-right-color:  #666600;  /* light green */
    border-bottom-color: #666600;  /* light green */
    border-left-color:   #CCCC99;
    padding-top:         3px;
    padding-right:       4px;
    padding-bottom:      3px;
    padding-left:        3px;
    margin: 1px;
/* Menu items that have mouse over or focus have an olive green background and white text */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a:hover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a:focus
    background-color:    #999966;
    color:               #FFF;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus are set to MenuBarItemHover with an olive green background and white text */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover, ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarSubmenuVisible
    background-color:    #999966;
    color:               #FFF;
SUBMENU INDICATION: styles if there is a submenu under a given menu item
/* Menu items that have a submenu have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenu and are set to use a background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenu
    background-image: url(SpryMenuBarDown.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
/* Menu items that have a submenu have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenu and are set to use a background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul a.MenuBarItemSubmenu
    background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRight.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenuHover and are set to use a "hover" background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover
    background-image: url(SpryMenuBarDownHover.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
/* Menu items that are open with submenus have the class designation MenuBarItemSubmenuHover and are set to use a "hover" background image positioned on the far left (95%) and centered vertically (50%) */
ul.MenuBarHorizontal ul a.MenuBarItemSubmenuHover
    background-image: url(SpryMenuBarRightHover.gif);
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 95% 50%;
BROWSER HACKS: the hacks below should not be changed unless you are an expert
/* HACK FOR IE: to make sure the sub menus show above form controls, we underlay each submenu with an iframe */
/*ul.MenuBarHorizontal iframe
    position: absolute;
    z-index: 1010;
    filter:alpha(opacity:0.1);
*//* HACK FOR IE: to stabilize appearance of menu items; the slash in float is to keep IE 5.0 from parsing */
@media screen, projection
    ul.MenuBarHorizontal li.MenuBarItemIE
        display: inline;
        f\loat: left;
/*        background: #ECE9D8;*/

Answer 1

I wonder if anyone can tell me easily how to make the submenu's under the horizontal menu bar also appear horizontally?
This question is more suited to the Spry forum.