forgetful session manager

[Bradley Bell <bradleyb shelob classrooms washington edu>]

Gnome won't remember my settings when I log out and back in again.  It
does this for some users, but not others, on the same system.  It's really
frustrating.
If I create a brand new user, that user can use gnome, and it will
remember his panel icons and all that.
But it won't remember mine.
I've tried deleting anything gnome related in ~ and even in /tmp in an
effort to remove any old configuration lying around.
But even after that, if I log in and make some changes, when I 
log back in later, the changes will be gone.

Help!

-brad