$.preloadCssImages = function(settings){
			//overrideable defaults
			settings = jQuery.extend({
				 imgDir: 'images'
			}, settings);
		
			//dump all the css rules into one string
			var sheets = document.styleSheets;
			var cssPile = '';
			for(var i = 0; i<sheets.length; i++){
				var thisSheetRules = document.styleSheets[ i ].cssRules;
				for(var j = 0; j<thisSheetRules.length; j++){
					cssPile+= thisSheetRules[ j ].cssText;
				}
			}
			//parse string for image urls and load them into the DOM
			var allImgs = [];//new array for all the image urls  
			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	 
				$(arr).each(function(k){
					allImgs[ k ] = new Image(); //new img obj
					allImgs[ k ].src = settings.imgDir +'/'+ this;	
				});
			}
			return allImgs;
		}