Drop down menu problem

I have run into a problem with the drop down menus; I'm fairly new to drupal, and I don't know whether this is a bug or whether I am doing something wrong, so please be patient with me. The first item in the drop down menu has a switches to a black background halfway towards the end. I've included a link to a screen shot http://www.flickr.com/photos/40550418@N07/3732434312/

Also, this is probably a very stupid question, but how do you make the parent menu item not appear in the drop down menu? The way I have it set up, clicking on the actual menu item toggles the drop down open or closed, instead of jumping to a new page.

Finally, is there any documentation for this theme? The link on the theme page goes to a textless page...