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


      }