Bill is torn between me helping him in his attic or competing in a soup contest

Tomorrow, I'll be helping my brother, Bill, in Lincoln with some work on his attic. Bill is in the middle of a multi-year project that will end with his attic being turned into a master bedroom. This project was started a while ago.

I've helped him on a few occasions during this process to help Bill string wire down from the attic to the floor below so he can have some electricity up there for outlets and stuff.

When he called me this week, we had to haggle over some dates. We had originally settled on Thursday, but Laura and I had a thing to do with Julia, so I had to scrap that. I was free Wednesday, but Bill couldn't do it that day. He suggested next week, but I'll be busy next week.

I asked, "What about Friday?"

"I can't do it Friday."

"Why not?"

"Well, every year my work has a soup cook off and I was going to enter my famous Black Bean Chili in it."

"Let me get this straight," I asked. "You're going to forgo me helping you on your attic so that you can enter soup in a cooking contest?"

"Yes." he said a little sheepishly.

It took a bit of persuading to get him to change his mind. At one point, I called him to see if he'd made a decision and he said that he was still thinking about it.

"So you're going to give up labor in favor of the adulation from your co-workers?" I asked. "You know, you COULD just take your chili in before it starts. You probably don't have to be there all day, unless you crave comments."

I pictured Bill walking around people rubbing their bellies, licking their lips and patting Bill on the back for a great recipe.

"Wait a minute..." I asked. "What's with this 'famous' recipe? Isn't this the same recipe that girl you knew gave you?"

"Yes, but I've tweaked it a bit and made it my own."

That may be, but I still don't think it's enough of a big deal to shun cheap labor.