jQuery.preloadCssImages = function(){
	var allImgs = [];//new array for all the image urls  
	var k = 0; //iterator for adding images
	var sheets = document.styleSheets;//array of stylesheets

	for(var i = 0; i<sheets .length; i++){//loop through each stylesheet
			var cssPile = '';//create large string of all css rules in sheet
			var csshref = (sheets[i].href) ? sheets[i].href : 'window.location.href';
			var baseURLarr = csshref.split('/');//split href at / to make array
			baseURLarr.pop();//remove file path from baseURL array
			var baseURL = baseURLarr.join('/');//create base url for the images in this sheet (css file's dir)
			if(baseURL!="") baseURL+='/'; //tack on a / if needed
			if(document.styleSheets[i].cssRules){//w3
					var thisSheetRules = document.styleSheets[i].cssRules; //w3
					for(var j = 0; j<thisSheetRules.length; j++){
							cssPile+= thisSheetRules[j].cssText;
					}
			}
			else {
					cssPile+= document.styleSheets[i].cssText;
			}

			//parse cssPile for image urls and load them into the DOM
			var imgUrls = cssPile.match(/[^\(]+\.(gif|jpg|jpeg|png)/g);//reg ex to get a string of between a "(" and a ".filename"
			if(imgUrls != null && imgUrls.length>0 && imgUrls != ''){//loop array
					var arr = jQuery.makeArray(imgUrls);//create array from regex obj        
					jQuery(arr).each(function(){
							allImgs[k] = new Image(); //new img obj
							allImgs[k].src = (this[0] == '/' || this.match('http://')) ? this : baseURL + this;     //set src either absolute or rel to css dir
							k++;
					});
			}
	}//loop
	return allImgs;

}