My first menu, and I just can't keep it simple now, can I?

I may have painted myself into a corner here, or maybe there's still a way out. Here's what I have so far.

1. Created a custom menu and theme - no problem.
2. Needed non-uniform button widths. Search here revealed a solution to use inline styles to define the with for each button. Did that, worked greate.
3. Needed a uniquebackground image for each button, applied inline style again, works great.

Hover state text change does anything I want by editing the CSS. No problem. But, i would like the background to change. It appears by adding either a global background image or inline background images overrides any other background styles. Therefore I think I need to:

A) Somehow override the background image for the hover state and apply a regular style (Color) (this could be global) or
B) Swap the background image for another on the hover state? (This would most likely have to be inline due to the varied sizes)

Any input appreciated!