As this week comes to an end, it's obvious that lawmakers in the Congress are starting to get back to business after taking several days to honor those killed and wounded in the Arizona shootings last weekend.

Whether it was the speech of President Obama to a memorial service in Tucson on Wednesday night, or the reports of improvement in the recovery of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, lawmakers were moving on to other issues on Thursday.

The best place to see that was in what they were up to on Twitter, as only a handful of lawmakers referenced the Arizona shootings yesterday, with most focusing on home state issues.

"Touring the Garden Fresh Vegetables greenhouses in O'Neill, NE" tweeted Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, who also spoke to a high school later in the day.

In Fairfield, Connecticut, Rep. Jim Himes (D) was doing a brown bag lunch in the Fairfield Library Rotary room.

"Come by to chat," he told his followers.

"At breakfast with some local leaders in St. George," reported Sen. Orrin Hatch.  "I'm always grateful to visit Southern Utah, great people and warm."

"More on my proposal for a balanced-budget amendment," tweeted Sen. John Cornyn of Texas.

Meanwhile, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was taking suggestions from his Tweeps about how best to stream committee hearings and events, looking for the best 'bang for the buck' for the taxpayer.

While no one is forgetting the trauma inflicted by last Saturday's rampage or Rep. Giffords, it's clear that the Congress is now ready to move on to other things.

That will continue next week as lawmakers take up a Republican plan in the House to repeal the Obama health reform law.  

Debate on that will start on Tuesday, with a vote expected on the bill on Wednesday.

Stir in that, some legislative murmurs on gun control and the President's State of the Union Address on the 25th, and this Congress will be back to business pretty soon.

So, will anything change after the President's call for a calmer political debate?  Well, an idea to have lawmakers sit together - rather than divided by party for the State of the Union - was gaining a few supporters yesterday.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer - the number two Democrat in the House - said maybe it was time to do something different.

"A gesture like this won't make partisanship disappear, nor should it -- democracy is built on strong disagreements between the parties," said Hoyer.

But Hoyer said the plan backed by Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) "should help end the political theater of repeatedly seeing one side of the aisle rise in applause, as the other sits still."

Both sides are pretty good at that "theater."  Maybe it comes to an end in 2011.