iCal on Mac desktop to iPod Touch syncing problem

I have events on my iPod Touch that will not sync to my Mac OS 10.6.8 desktop.

What I've done that may have caused this:

I got a new MacBook for Christmas and so I tried syncing all 3 with iCloud, but that caused duplicate events

I tried only using MacBook & iPod Touch for sycing with iCloud and then directly syncing from my iPod with USB to my desktop, but it stopped syncing (later I found that my cord needed to be replaced, but I'm not sure if that was the problem - I was still dealing with some duplicate events, too)

I decided to stop using iCloud (I can do without using my iCal on my MacBook if there's no ideal solution to sync all 3 without duplications or other problems) and now my iPod Touch syncs well with my desktop for most items, but not all

I think my desktop thinks the events that are syncing have already been synced because they were in the past. The one that was important that I missed today, which is on my desktop (a repeating event) but is no longer on my iPod Touch, refuses to sync to my desktop. There may be more that I haven't noticed.

I thought maybe I could wipe my iPod Touch calendar and then sync my desktop to my iPod Touch, but I'm afraid that it might wipe my desktop as I don't know how to tell it to only go one way in syncing rather than acting as if it's a new program.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.