If you want to minimize HTTP requests, or store everything in one document, couldn't you embed a GIF or PNG in the HTML using MIME? I just checked, and a PNG of the "profile" icon is about half the size of the CSS. (261 bytes vs. 560).
data:image/png;base64,
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AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC
Often multiple http requests are avoided because browsers only make a limited amount of requests to a server at the same time. The best way to fight this is with image sprites and css source files stored on another server. I believe a simple sub domain would be enough to trigger more requests at the same time. Something like files.domain.com that even points to the same site as www.domain.com should do the trick. Load your site from www. And css/images from file. Subdomain.