Yeah p2pool is a nice fallback seeing how one of it's goals is to help prevent ddos. Just started using it today. if it's not too much of a network hog to keep the p2pool service running then it may be even a good long term failover pool to keep in the miners config.
It's not a crime to use another pool while you wait for a fix. HHTT allows you to mine without having to register an account or I'm currently quite liking p2pool.