I think that my system is staying at an older kernel version. It seems to update when I run dist-upgrade but the current kernel version doesn't change. Is it possible the system is set to install new kernel updates but only load an older version at start up?

$ uname -a
Linux HTPC 3.2.0-32-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 26 21:32:50 UTC 2012 i686 athlon    i386 GNU/Linux

$ dpkg --list | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic         3.2.0-32.51                                   Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-32-generic-pae     3.2.0-32.51                                Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 32 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-3.2.0-32-virtual         3.2.0-32.51                                  Linux kernel image for version 3.2.0 on 32 bit x86 Virtual Guests

dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d'
linux-headers-3.2.0-36
linux-headers-3.2.0-36-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-37
linux-headers-3.2.0-37-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-38
linux-headers-3.2.0-38-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-39
linux-headers-3.2.0-39-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-40
linux-headers-3.2.0-40-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-41
linux-headers-3.2.0-41-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-43
linux-headers-3.2.0-43-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-44
linux-headers-3.2.0-44-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-45
linux-headers-3.2.0-45-generic-pae
linux-headers-3.2.0-48
linux-headers-3.2.0-48-generic-pae