It just pops up out of nowhere, every once and a while! And as you can see, it lays over top of any and all windows....

It is a layout icon - probably from the [CMD]QVDRAWING[/CMD] command (panel).

Oh yeah! When I type in qvdrawing, there it is!
So why would it just 'magically' appear when I try to plot?
 

You may have the panel "pinned" and hoover your mouse over it incidentally.

Nope, it aint pinned, but I do see it at the lower center of my screen between pan and quick properties. Weird....oh well. At least I now know wtf it is!
Thanks Vladimir!