I've been back long enough to have the week of Thanksgiving with a huge group of relatives. Twenty-five for a sit down at my house. (Most of the food catered with some special Mom dishes thrown in.) A 90th Birthday for my father-in-law. I got to see my great nephew, Jack. Cute kid, growing fast. When I saw him in August I knew he'd be sitting up soon. Now he crawls and pulls up and walking can't be far away. He wants to push every button he sees with his tiny fingers. He could be an add for the safety outlet covers.

We had lots of logistics. Hotel keys, cars here and there, trips to the airport, outings to restaurants that resembled army movements. There were games of Scrabble, Sequence, Spinners and Trivial Pursuit and one my niece's boyfriend invented called the Name Game. There were jigsaw puzzles. And conversations. And everyone taking a turn with the on-the-move baby.

And the tradition of going to a Thanksgiving release kids' movie kept alive even though the youngest 'kid' was 13. (Soon Jack will be old enough to be our excuse!) I thought '102 Dalmations' would be lame. I guess it was but I liked it anyway. I like that the family cherishes these simple pleasures. (Although my Scrabble luck was on the wane and I got too many vowels resulting in one game in which I actually spelled ratio twice...good word for ditching vowels. In another game, I COULD have spelled ration, adding to an 'n' but someone blocked me.)

It's hard to recapture the rhythm. On the road, I could only muster energy to deal with business e-mail and a few personal mails home to keep in touch. I mustered my full attention to customers, speeches I listened to, speeches I gave, the logistics. Then I concentrated on the family and its comings and goings and washing china and silver and seeing that everyone had a glass of wine or soda. Now it's back to my real life, whatever that it.

Now that family is gone, I've gone down my list of favorite other journals and found a few fallen away but some stalwarts are still there. Still writing every day or almost. Amazing.

I don't know what I want to do with the journal. I think I'll continue to post snapshots, especially of neighborhoods in Austin. I don't think I'll spend as much time recounting my movements and meals. That's more work, somehow, than just filling a page, stream of consciousness style.

In Australia on the News Channel two stories filled the airwaves, repeated and repeated. THE election. And Shark attack. The shark killed one man and injured another.

The Wall Street Journal says that whoever is declared president that the people did NOT decide. It was a tie, more or less. So the result is, effectively, a coin toss. I agree. In fact, I suggested they toss the dang coin a couple of weeks ago.