YES!! You da man! I deactivated all the plugs and was left with a string as you describe. tmp and a string of alphanumeric characters behind it.
a:1:{i:0;s:117:"../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../tmp/tmplT9kBo/sess_afbd2f9514b1a50a6bd000997bb7d78c";}
I simply deleted the string, leaving the entry in the table.
reactivated the plug-ins on my admin panel and all is right now.
Thankee!! ^_^
Strangly I also had a table entry labeled deactivated_plugins or something like that.
It contained a:11:{i:0;s:117:"../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../../tmp/tmplT9kBo/sess_afbd2f9514b1a50a6bd000997bb7d78c";i:1;s:48:"../../wp-content/themes/paper/screenshot_old.jpg";i:2;s:36:"MODDED random-posts/random-posts.php";i:3;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:4;s:36:"contact-form-7/wp-contact-form-7.php";i:5;s:43:"google-analyticator/google-analyticator.php";i:6;s:36:"google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.php";i:7;s:24:"headspace2/headspace.php";i:8;s:39:"search-everything/search_everything.php";i:9;s:21:"wordtube/wordtube.php";i:10;s:27:"wp-wetfloor/wp-wetfloor.php";}
Believing it didn't belong there I totally deleted the entry. It didn't seem to return (yes I cycled activation of some plugins to see if it triggered a "regeneration" of the entry. Jury is out on that one...)
Just found too, that this second plug in post referenced a file added to my theme directory - looks like a compiled PHP file - I deleted it too.