How can I get my text to be precisly positioned in a DIV?

Hi,

I am having trouble getting my text to be centered in my comment balloon DIV on the index.php and single.php pages. I was able to horizontally center it with “text-align: center;”

Now the problem is getting it centered right in the center of the balloon. One thing to keep in mind though is that the height of the image is 48px and the direct vertical center of the balloon is around 17px to 19px from the top. I assume I will need to use padding but how do I use it with out making the div bigger. I just need the padding to affect only the text within the .comments DIV. How do I do that?

Here is the style.css code:

/*
       criticall
       https://criticall.co.cc/

       Highlite Blue: #0066ff
       Black Text: #000000
       Middle Gray: #666666
    */

    /*
       RESET
    */
    *                      {margin:0; padding:0;}
    html               {overflow-y: scroll;}
    html,body         {height:100%}
    body               {font-size: 12px; font-family:Arial, san-serif; color: #000000;
                         background: url(/images/topbar-background.png) top center repeat-x white;}

    /*
    UTILITY
    */
    .floatleft      {float: left;}
    .floatright      {float: right;}
    .clear            {clear: both;}

    a {color:#0066ff; text-decoration: none; }
    a:hover {  color:#0066ff; background: #eeeeee; border-bottom:1px dotted #0066ff;} a h1:hover {  color:#0066ff;}

    h1 {color:#666666; font-size: 3em; font-weight: normal;}
    h2 {color:#666666; font-size: 2em; font-weight: normal;}
    h3 {color:#666666; font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: normal;}
		h4 {color:#666666; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal;}

		p {margin: 0px 15px 15px 15px; }

    /*BLOG POSTS*/
    .date               {
                      color:#666666;
                      font-size:10px;
                      float:left;
                      text-transform: lowercase;
                      padding:0 0 15px 0;
                      }

    .metadata         {
                      color:#666666;
                      font-size:10px;
                      float:right;
                      text-transform: lowercase;
                      padding:0 0 15px 0;
                      }

    .tags             {
                      color:#666666;
                      font-size:10px;
                      float:left;
                      text-transform: lowercase;
                      padding:2px 0px;
											background: url(/images/tag.png) no-repeat ;
											height: 30px;
											display:block;
                      margin:0 0 0 14px;
                      }

    .comments   a     {
                      border: 0px solid;
                      outline: none;
                      display:block;
                      width:100px;
                      height:48px;
                      outline: none;
                      background: url(/images/comment-button.png) 0 0 no-repeat;
                      color:#0066ff;
                      font-size:10px;
                      float:right;
                      text-transform: lowercase;
                      background-position: 0px -48px;
                      font-weight: bold;
											text-align: center;
                      }

    .comments a:hover
                      {
                      background-position: 0px 0px;
                      color:#ffffff;
                      }                              

		.commentlist
											{
											padding:40px;
											list-style-type: none;
											}

		#respond					{
											padding:0 0 0 30px;
											}

    /*
    STRUCTURE
    */
    #pagewrap         {
                   		width: 1000px;
                  		margin: 0px auto -100px;
                   		min-height: 100%;
                   		height: auto !important;
                   		height: 100%;
                   		}   

    #push      				{
             					height: 100px;
             					}

    #content
                   		{
                   		width: 700px;
                   		float: left;
          						background: #fff;
                   		}

    #contentpadding
                    	{
											padding: 20px
											}

    #sidebar
                      {
             					width: 300px;
             					float:right;
             					}

    #sidebarpadding
             					{
            					padding: 20px 20px 20px 65px;
             					}            

    /*
    FOOTER
    */
    #footer
											{
             					height:100px;
             					background: #eeeeee;
             					}

    #footerguts
											{
            					width: 1000px;
             					margin: 0 auto;
            				 	}

    /*
    HEADER
    */      

    h1#logo a
                     {
                     outline: none;
                     text-indent: -9999px ;
                     display:block;
                     width:256px;
                     height:83px;
                     background: url(/images/title-button.png) top left no-repeat;
                     text-margin:0 10px 8px 0;
                     float:left;
                     }

    h1#logo a:hover
                     {
                     background-position: 0px -83px;
            				 background-color: #d2e4ff;
                     }                        

    #header
                   	{
          					height: 89px;
                    width: 100%;
                    margin:0 auto;
                    position:relative;
                    }                     

    #header div
                    {
                    float:left;
                    }                     

    #header p
                    {
                    text-indent: -9999px;
                    }                  

    #about a
                   {
                   border: 0px solid;
                   outline: none;
                   text-indent: -9999px;
                   display:block;
                   width:106px;
                   height:83px;
                   background: url(/images/about-button.png) 0 0 no-repeat;
                   position:absolute;
                   top:0px;
                   left:400px;
                   }

    #about a:hover
                   {
                   background-position: 0px -83px;
          				 background-color: #d2e4ff;
                   }                  

    #contact a
                   {
                   border: 0px solid;
                   outline: none;
                   text-indent: -9999px;
                   display:block;
                   width:134px;
                   height:83px;
                   background: url(/images/contact-button.png) 0 0 no-repeat;
                   position:absolute;
                   top:0px;
                   left:515px;
                    }

    #contact a:hover
                   {
                   background-position: 0px -83px;
          				 background-color: #d2e4ff;
                   }         

    #rss a
                   {
                   border: 0px solid;
                   outline: none;
                   text-indent: -9999px;
                   display:block;
                   width:50px;
                   height:83px;
                   background: url(/images/rss-button.png) 0 0 no-repeat;
                   position:absolute;
                   top:0px;
                   left:658px;
                   }

    #rss a:hover
                   {
                   background-position: 0px -83px;
          				 background-color: #d2e4ff;
                   }                  

    /*
    SEARCH FORM
    */
    form#searchform
                   {
                   display:block;
                   width:255px;
                   height:20px;
                   position:absolute;
                   top:56px;
                   left:753px;
                   }

    .searchbutton
                   {
          				 color: #0066ff;
                   border: 0px solid;
                   display:block;
                   width:45px;
                   height:20px;
                   background: #d2e4ff;
                   position:absolute;
                   top:0px;
                   left:202px;
                   -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 4px;
                   -moz-border-radius-topright: 4px;
                   -webkit-border-bottom-right-radius: 4px;
                   -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 4px;
                   font-size: 12px;
                   }

    .searchbutton:hover
                   {
                   background-color: #0066ff;
          				 color: #ffffff;
         					 font-size: 12px;
                   }                                              

    .searchfield
                   {
                   background:url(/images/search-field-shadow.png) top left repeat-x #666666;
                   color: #eeeeee;
                   border: 0px solid;
                   position: absolute;
                   top:0px;
                   left:0px;
                   display:block;
                   width:200px;
                   height:20px;
                  -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 4px;
                  -moz-border-radius-topleft: 4px;
                  -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px;
                  -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 4px;
          				font-size: 12px;
                  }

Thank you for your help and time.

Adam