weird starting issues, im stumped

[statik]

My car recently is having issues starting up. I don't think its the starter or the battery or the alternator because after i get it started once it will start up fine for the next few hours. My problem is sometimes when I try to start it after sitting a few hours, the car will crank, and i hear a relay clicking in the driver side kick panel and the car wont start.

Eventually the car will start turning over weird, it will try to turn over, then act as if im no longer turning the key, like : *crank* *crank* *crank* *crank* ___________ *crank* *crank* *crank* *crank* _____________ *crank* *crank*

Then it will start up and my radio presets are gone.

This came out of no where so im assuming something died, but I have no idea what it could be, the battery is brand new. Id say maybe the starter/alt, but the car starts fine after I get it started once. Could it be that relay thats clicking? possibly a bad connection? I could really use some help here...