I do a little of all the above. If I miss the new posts because I got caught up in a butter bean thread, I'll click the drop down menu and click "today's posts". Then I go kill off a few vamps and come back to see who's online from the index page. Sometimes I'll pick a random member and troll through their stats looking for ways to exploit them in a curmudgeonly manner. Next I zip through the DYK to see what everyone's having for breakfast/lunch/dinner before moving on to Dean's profile to see when he was on last and send him a mushy, vomitus inducing (to others!) visitor message. I then check new posts to see if my curmudgeon post was met with humor, sarcasm or infraction points. If I see a mod looking at my profile (meaning those infractions are coming!) I go hide in the Escape Hatch and pretend I was there the whole time. When I emerge and see that I have, indeed, received infractions, I stomp my foot and claim that my neighbor broke in and started typing rude messages on the forum under my user name. Finally, when it's all said and done, I conclude that while I'm not new to the site, I still am not quite sure how to cope with it, mix a dirty martini and drunk-dial Dean to see if he's ready to join me for cocktails or if he's not quite finished his breakfast yet.
I hope that answers your questions, Lucille?? Muuuuah!
*edit* Go buy that user forum! You know we'll all be there for the celebration! Besides, you've spent $25 or worse things, right?