title: jquery get the parent ul of a list item click
body: <p>I am trying to write a simple hover function (please don't suggest another, I have specific needs).  I have the hover work so that it will show to the right of the list item that it is hovering.  The style of the page shows a left navigation where the ul background looks like a solid block.  This means that I need my hover to be to the right of the whole ul, not just the li I am over incase it is a short one. I am trying to get the parent of the li, but I am getting an error this.parent is not a function.
  How do I get the parent ul of a li so I can get it's position.</p>
  
  <p>my li has a class of .left-nav-item</p>
  
  <pre><code>this.myhover = function () {
  this.xOffset = -10; // x distance from mouse
  this.yOffset = 10; // y distance from mouse       
  
  $(".left-nav-item").unbind().hover(
  function (e) {
  this.top = (e.pageY + yOffset);
  this.left = (e.pageX + xOffset);
  
  alert(this.title);
  this.parent().css('background-color', 'red');
  
  $('body').append('&lt;p id="new"&gt;My Hover Text&lt;/p&gt;');
  $('p#new').css("top", this.top + "px").css("left", this.left + "px").css("position", "absolute").fadeIn("slow");
  },
  function () {
  //$("p#new").fadeOut("slow").remove();
  }
  ).mousemove(
  function (e) {
  this.top = (e.pageY + yOffset);
  this.left = (e.pageX + xOffset);
  //$("p#new").css("top", this.top + "px").css("left", this.left + "px");
  }
  );
  
  };
  
  jQuery(document).ready(function ($) { myhover(); });
  </code></pre>