We go on vacation next week and I plan on putting my account on hold. 

The problem is on October 17th I requested two books from same member.  Thought I'd same her on shipping, both books were marked shipped on Oct 19, without DC.  Within in a week I received one book.  The other book has yet to be seen.  My notify PBS date is Nov 16th, while we are gone.  How do I handle this?

don't worry about it until you get back from vacation if the one hasn't arrived.  If it arrives during your vacation then just mark it received when you get back.  If it doesn't arrive by the 26th day it will be marked lost by the system and you should get your credit back and I think it puts you back on your WL for that book.  However, if you are on vacation it should be WL'd for you unless you were to have it marked to autosend.

don't know if that made any sense or not

Have you PM'd this person? It seems odd that they would not send both books in one package. It's cheaper that way.  How many days before the mark by date do you go on vacation? If it doesn't get marked received on time it will go lost, you'll get your credit back.  If the book arrives while you are gone you can mark it received it will retake your credit and give the sender their credit.  It will put the book on your reminder list as PBS suggests you wait 2 wks after a book goes lost before you request it from someone else. 

Did you order both books together, as a bulk request, (using the 'order more from this member' button)? If so, I would definitely PM that member to let them know there was a problem with the order and ask about the other book.

If you ordered them separately, it's entirely possible that she shipped them separately, and then one could get waylaid and end up in Timbuktu. As has been stated, the system will mark the book "lost" so you don't need to do anything and you can then deal with whatever has happened when you return--either mark it received if it's arrived while you were gone, or order another copy if you want to.

I had a similar situation happen twice this past week. In both cases, I got a bunch of book orders when I posted several wishlisted books from my FOL sale. I printed all the wrappers using PBS online postage/DC. Several hours later, I checked back in, had a few more orders and printed another batch of wrappers, and went off to do other things. It was only when I was wrapping the books later that I noticed that two of those books were going to two of the same people I'd wrapped books for in the previous batch! Since the printed postage isn't refundable, it made no sense for me to stick them in the same package, even though it would have saved me a few dollars in postage/PBS fees between those two orders had I realized ahead of time that I could have packaged the books together. :-(

I don't know if the people who accepted the wishlisted book I posted then went on to look at my shelf and ordered the other one later, or if the second order from each of them was strictly coincidence with them wanting another book and with that book from my shelf just being next in FIFO or what...but you can't count on the sender realizing that the order you place is from the same person UNLESS you use the 'order more from member' button at the time you place your original order--that sends them the bulk request--or before they've seen and accepted the original order.

Cheryl