JavaScript is a real pain to work with, and if you work with it, I feel your pain :)
However, hopefully something here can help you ease that pain just slightly
Code Snippets
get the selected value of a select box - a quick definition that adds a new method to all of your <select> statements which will return the value of the selected option. -- Update 20051107: ok, so apparently this doesn't work on all browsers, and a better alternative was explained to me in this forum thread.