Domain expired and unpaid for but I still own it.?

My domain mimaca.com expired on 2-23-07 thru Yahoo and I did not renew, nor have I been charged. However it appears that I still own the domain and it is still displaying my page holder that I left there. The domain package for it does not expire until 12-28-07, I can still upload and put files there if I want to. Google is still caching and keeping it current in there search results. Lol, I do not want the domain, just wondering why I still have control of it if it is expired, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

the dns naming services have not caught up with you yet, they will hit you a couple times to renew and then they will deactivate the name and make it available to someone else that asks for it.

by the way this is also a good way to have others hit your site for rankings.