no drummer for 90 days

I vote for taking the time to work on getting material ready for a release. I also agree with your own idea of having the guitars/bass/vocals done while he's away.
 
I'm just afraid that if we track real amps the whole perspective of the mix may change drastically when drums are recorded, possibly in a bad way? This is only my second attempt at recording our whole band, and I'm definitely going to take a more laid back, organized, DO IT AGAIN UNTIL ITS TIGHT AS FUCK approach.
 
Record DI's and reamp them later once you've recorded the drums.

want to, just need some equipment before we do anything.

Need bigger/better interface, and also a reamp box. Never truely reamped the "correct" way before.....I get overwhelmed by certain things I dont have experience with.