Table Cell scaling problem

http://users.bigpond.net.au/ollie/www/template.html

On the left, there is a 3x3 table that houses the menu.

On either side of the text area, there's a 1x3 table that houses part of the
orange curve, and in the middle cell there is a 1px high image which is the
tiling background, so that as I fill up the text cell, the orange bored
scales down.

My problem is, the left and right tables won't go to 100% height. Any ideas?
I've had this problem before.