SharePoint is great about hiding permissions. I was working on a Shared Service Provider (SSP) and was greeted with an access denied page when I went to edit some of the profile settings under the "User Profile and My Sites" section. I was a little disturbed because I am a site collection admin, and I have access via the Web Application Policy in Central Admin. Fortunately, I found the following link:
http://blog.tylerholmes.com/2008/09/access-denied-for-site-collection.html
Tyler Holmes was nice enough to post his findings and provide a nice walkthrough on how to get around the issue. Basically, it involves clicking on the permissions link at the bottom of the "User Profile and My Sites" section and giving yourself access.