Alts and Raiding - What to Do?

I have recently run into a very interesting circumstance lately.  I have my level 80 mage who I have geared up to the point of being able to step into early ICC.  Not the highest DPS by any stretch, but can step in.  I still want my moonkin as my main raider.  However, my guild is in the middle of running HMs for both 10 and 25 mans and my mage is not geared for that (except heroic lootship) and I need my geared moonkin for HMs.  In other words, how do you gear an alt when your main is required for your raids?

This question is something that I'm still very much working on myself, but here are a few ideas that I have come up with.

1) PUGs - Where my moonkin will most definitely be needed for my guild's main raids, I could easily get into some PUGs with my mage.  Of course, at this point, you run into PUG issues. (people leaving after the first wipe, complaining about loot, ninjaing, etc.)

2) Another guild with different raid times from your main - My main raids 25 mans on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday and 10 mans on Wednesday.  This means that finding a guild that raids on Sunday would be perfect for my mage.  Ner'zhul is also a PST server.  I could also find an EST server that raids earlier (say 6-8 EST) and still make it for my main raids.

3) Come in on farm content - Unfortunately, with the exception of heroic lootship, I don't know if we have any HMs on farm yet.  We have been downing HMs left and right (Conquest is currently 7/12 in 25 man HMs and 11/12 HMs in 10 mans), but I wouldn't classify it as on farm yet.  Plus my main still needs gear from some of the HMs.  I am still a little ticked that my mage got heroic Spyglass before my main did on 10 man heroic lootship.

4) Change my alt from PvE to PvP - Mages are pretty good at PvP.  I have thought about just running heroics to get enough triumph badges to get PvP gear and use the Stone Keeper Shards to fill in extra slots and just be a PvP mage.  It is easier to get gear doing that than raiding.

5) Realize Cataclysm is close and get another alt to level 80 - From the looks of some of the initial gear in Cataclysm,  I will be replacing raiding gear fairly quickly with quest rewards and dungeon gear.  My DK now has his heirloom gear to be able to tank dungeons up to 80 fairly quickly.  Then maybe my warlock, who also has heirloom gear now.

So what do you do with your alts when trying to gear them up?  If you have any other ideas, I would love to hear them.  Also, I'm gonna be a broken record, but I want to remind you about the Christmas in July contest.  Just take some guesses at some release dates and win cool stuff.