Hi Mike
After asking around, I learned that some have experienced this with a new Dell machine. Dell has preinstalled some utilities on certain hardware (such as a Cyberlink utility for Dell's MediaDirect feature).
What you might look for is "Outlookaddinsetup" in Add/Remove programs. You can safely remove this and new appointments will not have the recurring bug. Appointments already affected would have to be changed manually.
Dell's MediaDirect feature wants access to Outlook's contacts and calendar: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/odg/media_direct_jump?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd
William