After a few hours use, I have found that I often cause the balloon to come up when I dont want it to - for example if Im going to check mail whose icon is right next to it. Not sure if I like that it stays there even after I move my mouse away.. particularly so if ive 'hovered' over that icon by mistake when meaning to go for my mail.
I've been using it today at work, and the balloon does tend to pop up even when passing the mouse over the icon, so I've thought of a solution, I need to allow a slight period of time to pass before displaying the balloon, perhaps 1/2 a second, and if the mouse is still there then display the balloon notification.
I may still design my own notification, as I will then have better control over it. But the above should be a quick fix, to stop it showing every time you move over the icon.
Oh, and to show the exit menu, it's a right click, left click will minimize/restore the GUI.