Troubleshoting: Cannot change Communicator status; stuck at Away

All of suddenly my Office Communicator 2005 (yes, I am still stuck with OC 2005) status got stuck at "Away" and no matter what I did (changed status to "Online" or "Busy", restarted OC, restarted PC, disabled status update based on Outlook Calendar, etc) it would always show me as Away. After few days of messing around various settings (not much settings anyhow) I decided I need to re-gain control of my online status (I was worried my boss will start asking questions about my real whereabouts if I am "away" for too long) and decided to google for a solution. Right away I discovered it is a "known" bug. Microsoft Knowledge Base article 911976 provides more details and link to request a hotfix. As soon as I installed the hotfix I was able to regain control of my perceived accurate online presence and no longer worry my co-workers and boss will think I am fooling around while in reality I am busy working on my project deliverables...