yay!

after spending some quality time with support, it looks like my wifes birthday was corrupted. 12 entries for the same event were found.

1. backup device
2. wipe device clean
3. resymc to outlook (after deleting corrupted entry)
4. edit the backup file, deleting the calendar entried
5. restore backup to device.

taadaa!, all settings, ringtones, wallapapers & etc saved, with all the calendar/contact info restored (except the corrupt entry)