rsync exclude

[Gary Montalbine]

I am trying to backup my /home directory. A friend helped me with this 
script:

#!/bin/sh
#backup friday
#"Spinning up backup drive and mounting it .."
cd /
mount /mnt/hd2
#"Starting backup procedures"
rsync -avx --exclude="/home/gary/.thumbnails/" 
--exclude="/home/gary/tmp/" --delete --ignore-errors /home/gary 
/mnt/hd2/2010
umount /mnt/hd2
#END

It backs up /home OK. However it does not exclude .thumbnails or tmp. I 
have read the manual and am confused on the use of --exclude. I am 
strictly a user. I am using rsync supplied by ML2010.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary