ok, i don't know what was wrong... if there was a bad keystroke in there or what, but i re-entered the code for #the-background and #wrapper, and now firebug is reading all of the proper entries on the site. it also is clipping my background correctly - in other words, for my wide screen monitor [1680x1050], it clips the bottom portion of a 4:3 image. however, i still have a scroll bar, and there is a portion of white below the image that i would like to eliminate. i felt certain this was happening because some other element in my css was asking for that much height on the screen, and i have overflow:auto; set for my body tag now, but i can't for the life of me see which element is causing the extra white at the bottom that calls for the scroll bars. can anyone see it? or am i barking up the wrong tree?... Site.
and arsondpi... i divorced the logo area from the menu [via the pre-nav text box] because on several pages i am hiding the menu, but want the logo box to remain. it means pasting in some html into a lot of exhibit pages, but i don't mind, and it gives the flexibility i want without the coding knowledge i would no doubt need [and don't have] to hide the menu but keep the pre-nav text box showing. hope that is a somewhat clear explanation...
thanks all, as always, for the wonderful and prompt help!