NEW YORK (AP) – Martha Stewart was finally given the signal to step into the future – on a lighter foot.

With a smile on her face, she told The Associated Press the irritating electronic ankle bracelet would come off at 12:05 a.m. today, in the first minutes of the first day when she was freed from house arrest.

The prospect of being rid of the device filled her with “nervous excitement,” she told the AP on Wednesday.

For more than five months of home confinement – including a three-week extension for violating unspecified probation rules – the monitoring device was her constant companion, broadcasting a signal to federal authorities who could track her every move.

In one Internet chat with fans, she said: “I hope none of you ever has to wear one.”

Stewart, 64, was sentenced last year to five months behind bars and five months of house arrest after she was convicted of lying to authorities about her 2001 sale of about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock.

Chris Stanton, the chief federal probation officer in New York, said there was a standard procedure for releasing someone from the device at end of house arrest.

“We advise the offender in advance that, unless they otherwise hear from us, at 12:01 a.m. they can cut the bracelet off – it’s just a rubber band,” he said. Then, “all monitoring will cease.”

Any further monitoring of Stewart would be by the reporters and photographers who have followed her since she was released from a federal prison five months ago.

She will be on probation for a year and a half, meaning among other things that she is not allowed to get drunk, own a gun or leave the federal court district (for her other homes in Connecticut, Maine and the Hamptons on Long Island, for example) without permission. She must meet with her probation officer whenever requested and submit monthly reports on her activities.

Despite the electronic shackle, Stewart has been active, especially with her flagship magazine, Martha Stewart Living, where she’s been writing about cooking mussels, choosing paint colors, sifting flour and determining whether yeast is fresh.

Now she’ll be even more visible.

“Martha,” her syndicated weekday lifestyles show, premieres Sept. 12.

“The Apprentice: Martha Stewart,” a weekly NBC prime-time series, premieres Sept. 21.

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Associated Press Writer Frazier Moore contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: http://marthastewart.com

AP-ES-08-31-05 1735EDT