Hi Eric,
Complicated is not good :-)
But to answer your questions:
1. are you showing child categories?
No - just top level.
2. can you forsake the hierarchical display of your categories
Sure - just need to list the categories hyperlinked.
3. how many categories will be displayed
Probably 30 - 60 eventually... now only 3...
4. are you willing to forget a <ul> list and use a <div>?
No problem...
If it's too hard i'll just do in manually...
Categories won't change too often...
Cheers,
Anders