CSS background image help

Hi everyone,

I've been battling with this for a few days now, I can't figure this out despite my best googling attempts.

So, i've been working off Simply Rails 2 by Patrick Lenz, and am trying to get my own background image in the CSS.

I've tried just about every CSS tutorial for background images possible and just can't get it to load properly. Surely, my newness with working with CSS and RoR is to blame.

 body {
  background-color: #64AA09;
  margin: 15px 25px;
  font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}
#content {
  background-color: #fff;
  border: 10px solid #AA9f09;
  padding: 10px 10px 20px 10px;
  overflow: hidden;
}
* html #content {
  height: 1%;
}
#notification {
  border: 5px solid #9c9;
  background-color: #cfc;
  padding: 5px;
  margin: 10px 0;
}
.fieldWithErrors {
  border: 5px solid #f66;
}
#vote_score {
  float: right;
  color: #9c9;
}
#vote_form {
  margin: 10px 0;
}
#vote_form input {
  padding: 3px 5px;
  border: 3px solid #393;
  background-color: #cfc;
  text-decoration: none;
  color: #393;
}
#vote_form input:hover { 
  background-color: #aea;
}
#vote_history {
  padding: 5px;
  margin: 0;
  list-style: none;
  border: 3px solid #ccc;
  background-color: #eee;
  float: right;
  color: #999;
  font-size: smaller;
}
#login_logout {
  float: right;
  color: #302D03;
  font-size: smaller;
}
#navigation {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 5px 0;
  margin: 0;
  text-align: center;
}
#navigation li {
  display: inline;
  padding: 0 5px;
}
#navigation li a {
  color: #fff;
}
.story {
  float: left;
  width: 50%;
}
.story h3 { margin-bottom: 0; }
.story p  {
  color: #666; 
  font-size: 0.8em; 
}
h2 {
  clear: both;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 10px 0;
}

I have the background i want to use located in /public/images/stripes.png.
I have tried using background-image: url(); (with every possible directory in there to no evail), do I also have to enter in code within my one of my view files as well.

I really appreciate any help

Thanks,
Seth