Still making deals, being a star

So, what do you do if you're my husband and haven't heard from your mother is a few weeks? You Google her, of course. Welcome to our family.

She isn't returning his calls, it seems, over a little dust-up they've had via e-mails. Dust-ups with them are a way of life and nothing new. They are very much alike in the personality department and butting heads is the way it is.

So, there she is in the local newspaper in all her glory. Now, newspaper publicity for my mother-in-law also is nothing new. She's an actress and a realtor. She formerly was an antiques dealer. Self promotion is necessary in all of these careers.

So, what's new with her lately? Well, there's an article of her audition for the game show "Deal or No Deal". I'm not kidding. She went up to Indianapolis and auditioned. She was called back for a second interview and went. She's been told she has moved to the next level but she's not sure if that's another interview or a trip to L.A. to play the game.

The article talks of her local activities. She's a realtor for a local firm. She's an 84 year old grandmother who plays bridge, at the Master level thank you, and has a very active social life. She goes to church every Sunday. She's incredibly healthy, a fact that she credits to her consumption of many vitamins daily. She is on no medication. That's a fact I can't even make of myself.

She had a scare a few years back with breast cancer but it was caught very early and the tumor was very small. She had surgery but it wasn't necessary for her to have chemo or radiation. She was very lucky. She's since had reconstructive surgery and a tummy tuck with liposuction, thank you, while she was at it.

"I still feel like I'm young. I still do the same things I used to do in my 60s," she said.

I received an e-mail from her today thanking me for sending the new Paula Deen book to her for Mother's Day. She said if she is asked something she'd wish for as a contestant on the game show, she's saying she'd like to meet Paula. They are from the same area in Georgia originally.

In one of the interviews she was asked to relate an embarrassing moment in her life. She told the story about saying the word damn while doing her tv cooking show in the 1950's on a local station. She said she received tons of letters criticizing her for that language. It was live tv and no taking it out.

The title of this post is the title of the newspaper article about her.

Good publicity.