Ibook forgets Dock layout

[Peter Nacken]

Hello people 

It happened now twice to me that I had that nice message "you have to
restart your machine" in 4 languages on the screen, for no apparent reason,
and when I did so, after restart, my dock looked like fresh out of the box
...  All customized stuff gone .. Icons I trashed are back ..  I am not even
daring to ask WHY .. But ... Is there a way I can save my dock layout (not
only taking a screen shot) and re-activate it ?

Thanks

P