Top menu navigation as drop-down options?

I've got a theme region called "content-top" that sits above the main content. (I'm using zen). You'll probably want something like that, and put your nice menu block there. From my page.tpl.php:

        <?php if ($content_top): ?>
          <div id="content-top" class="region region-content_top">
            <?php print $content_top; ?>
          </div> <!-- /#content-top -->
        <?php endif; ?>

        <?php if ($breadcrumb || $title || $tabs || $help || $messages): ?>
          <div id="content-header">
            <?php print $breadcrumb; ?>
            <?php if ($title): ?>
              <h1 class="title"><?php print $title; ?></h1>
            <?php endif; ?>
            <?php print $messages; ?>
            <?php if ($tabs): ?>
              <div class="tabs"><?php print $tabs; ?></div>
            <?php endif; ?>
            <?php print $help; ?>
          </div> <!-- /#content-header -->
        <?php endif; ?>

        <div id="content-area">
          <?php print $content; ?>
        </div>

It's pretty easy to add a region I think. Just switch to a different theme temporarily. Then edit the .info file, add a new region

regions[content_top]    = content top

And then create the section in your page.tpl.php, like what I had shown above, then switch back to your theme and move the menu block there.

I didn't have to mess around with nice-menus CSS at all I don't think.

Something like this would move the menu around to wherever you want though.

#block-nice_menus-1 {
position:relative;
top:50px;
right:200px;
}