ack i posted wrong this is what i use and got working

 .

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [ <!ENTITY nbsp "&#x00A0;"> ]>
<xsl:stylesheet
 version="1.0"
 xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
 xmlns:msxml="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
 xmlns:umbraco.library="urn:umbraco.library" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltCommon="urn:Exslt.ExsltCommon" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes="urn:Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltMath="urn:Exslt.ExsltMath" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions="urn:Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltStrings="urn:Exslt.ExsltStrings" xmlns:Exslt.ExsltSets="urn:Exslt.ExsltSets" xmlns:umbraco.contour="urn:umbraco.contour"
 exclude-result-prefixes="msxml umbraco.library Exslt.ExsltCommon Exslt.ExsltDatesAndTimes Exslt.ExsltMath Exslt.ExsltRegularExpressions Exslt.ExsltStrings Exslt.ExsltSets umbraco.contour ">

<xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />

<xsl:param name="currentPage"/>

<!-- Input the documenttype you want here -->
<xsl:variable name="level" select="1"/>

<xsl:template match="/">

<!-- The fun starts here -->

<xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::node [@level=$level]/node [string(data [@alias='umbracoNaviHide']) != '1']">
                                                <!-- check if the 'media picker' property has a value -->
                                                <xsl:if test="data[@alias='excommknap'] != ''">
                                                        <!-- get the media XML and assign it to a variable -->
                                                        <xsl:variable name="media" select="umbraco.library:GetMedia(number(data[@alias='excommknap']), 0)" />
                                                        <!-- check if the media XML contains an image path 'umbracoFile' -->
                                                        <xsl:if test="count($media/data[@alias='umbracoFile']) &gt; 0">
                                                        <a href="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(@id)}">

                                                           <img class="ExcommKnap" src="{$media/data[@alias='umbracoFile']}" border="0" />
                  
                                                        </a>
                                                        </xsl:if>
                                                </xsl:if>

</xsl:for-each>

</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

                                                        <a href="{umbraco.library:NiceUrl(@id)}">
                                                           <img class="ExcommKnap" border="0"
                                                                  onmouseover="this.src='{$media/data[@alias='umbracoFile']}';this.alt='On alternate text';"
                                                                  onmouseout="this.src=' SECONDARY VARIAbLE HERE ';this.alt='Off alternate text';"/>
                                                           </a>

this works to the extend of it showing a empty picture on mouseout - i just need to make a secondary variable and get that into the onmouseout.

is working on a reply...