Narrow horiz menu line-height weirdness

Sorry for the awekward title

Here are my links for full HTML/CSS:
http://thedarknoise.com/test_index.php
http://thedarknoise.com/css/test_design.css

and here is my trouble...
If you'll notice, the (top navigation) menu is not centered vertically. I previously (temp) fixed this with setting line-height: 1px; /* or 0.1em or 0.1% ... for the ul, li of the navbar... While this quick fix worked in most browsers, it doesn't seem to work anymore, and I know it's not proper coding.

I scoured google and this forum (etc.) and I can't seem to identify the root cause or proper fix. Any thoughts?

Thanks,