Studio gear recommendations

Gents,

I'm looking for a little advice/opinions in regard to my recording set-up. I sold off my ADAT/Soundcraft Spirit FX16 mixer and bought an RME 9636 recording card and a Yamaha 01V digital mixer with the 8 in/8 out ADAT card.

While this set-up sounds great, I'm just not getting the full use out of it. At home, when I record by myself, it's fine as I can only track one or two things at a time unless I use midi. The problem arises when I want to record many simultaneous tracks or record outside my little studio. Now this may be party due to the fact that I've never fully got my head around the routing inside the 01V and am too stuck in the analog mixer mindset, but it's not for lack of trying.

The 01V can input/output 8 tracks out the optical ports and I believe 2 via S/PDIF. The RME card does support 16 optical in/out but I'm not able to use both ADAT 1 and 2 ports since the mixer only has 1 ADAT port.

I write with a drummer friend who has a nice kit and drum room in his home while I have an electronic drumkit with a Roland V-Drums TD8 module at my house. I also have Drumkit from Hell Superior, DFH, and Battery which could all be used for drum sounds after a midi track is laid down with the TD8. The trick is getting the drummer used to the mesh head kit....which would likely solve most of these problems as I wouldn't need to record his acoustic drums then.

I'm trying to decide what to do based on my goals for recording which are:

1) Relatively easy to use set-up (i.e. Get idea, sit down and record idea)
2) Have a ability to record remotely to some extent and bring material back home to mix/do overdubs.
3) Have ability to record more than 8 tracks at a time without sharing inputs or tracks.

Some of the options I've considered are:

1) Keep current set-up for home, but buy standalone hard disc recorder like Zoom MRS1608CD (has 8 XLR inputs) to record drums or other mobile recordings
2) Sell 01V and buy Behringer MX2442a, Fostex D2424, and Mackie 1604 (to use for mobile recording with the D2424). The Behringer was chosen as it has enough inputs/direct outs and is cost effective.
3) Record acoustic drums at local studio then bring tracks home to work with.
4) Tell drummer to suck it up and use the electronic kit.
5) Learn how to max out current set-up and have drummer lug his drums in when we're ready for final drum tracks.
6) Find pc card/mixer combo that allows more ins/outs like Delta 1010 or similar.
7) Totally switch gears and sell off 01V to buy high end all in one hard disc recorder like Roland VS2480.

I'm open to any ideas. Cost is a factor but depending on the route I go, I could wind up with gear to sell which will help. The temporary plan is to write/record a few more tunes on the current setup to see if I'm just not using my head or gear as well as I could be and then decide from there.

With the 1000's of possibilities of recording gear combos out there, this could go anyway. I'd just like to spend less time fighting the gear and more time recording music.

Thanks
Mike