Display categories with page link dropdowns?

This is a crazy question, I think. But I figured I’d ask, in case there’s actually a simple answer that I just haven’t found yet (still searching!)

When I’m doing a WordPress site, I’ll usually code out the site in regular HTML and browser-check it before “converting” it to WordPress. In the site I’m working on now, I’ve used the Son of Suckerfish dropdowns for the main navigational menu. However, I’m having an issue in figuring out how, exactly, to convert this “static” dropdown with WordPress functions.

Basically, what I want to do is provide a (horizontal) list at the top of the page. Each li element will be the name of a catagory – so on the entire website, you’ll see the categories on every page, listed horizontally as a a menu.

Then, I would like to create separate Pages that will display beneath each category, within the dropdown. I’d like ot be able to have the client add and/or delete Pages at will, and have those pages associated with each category, so that they won’t have to “hard code” in new pages and such.

Man, I hope I’m making sense.

Am I overlooking soemthing in the Codex for accomplishing this, or will I have to write a plugin (my God, how scary!), or has anyone done anythign like this before? I may be even thinking on this incorrectly – so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to do this (or a better way of doing it) I’d really appreciate it.

If I need to clarify anything in any way, please let me know 🙂