dock not working...weird.

[Snoke Jay S NPRI]

first off, let me say this - I know I can probably reboot and get this to work...  the dock is not allowing me to access the aliases on it at all.  it pops up, it magnifies, and even hides items on it and I can see everything that is open.
is it possible to have too many things open at once, and too many aliases on it such that it forgets where things are located?
seems to me like it's really just a list with pointers and icon resources.
anyone know how to restart the dock without having to reboot? I'm enjoying my uptime right now... ;o)
Jay Snoke