Killing Two Birds With One Stone

It has been a while since I last entered Blogville Bank & Trust and made a deposit.  I have either been lazy, not in the mood, or just out of fresh ideas.  Whatever the excuses, I have returned with this random thought.

For Christmas this year I offered the kids an interesting proposition.  I offered either to purchase $X.XX worth of presents for each of them and have then available for opening on Christmas morning (well, actually Christmas Eve as that is when we typically open our gifts) or I could purchase 1.5 x $X.XX worth of presents after the new year.  I will not get into the reasons for my doing so but the kids selected option 2 (the 1.5 x $X.XX worth of gifts).  We had already purchased a few gifts so they did have something to open at least (my personal favorite being a chess set I purchased for the daughter that had pink and purple chess pieces).

Since the kids know that they will have some money to purchase gifts, we did a little post Christmas / pre Christmas shopping last night.  The daughter was spending the night with the mother-in-law so it was just the son, the wife, and I.  The son had bought an electronic dart board for the wife for Christmas and though we looked all over the house we could not find (3) AA batteries so as we headed out of the first store, we did need to head through the check out line to pay for the batteries that we picked up while pre-shopping.

The wife wanted to use the restroom before leaving and was trying to explain the merits of having me pay for the batteries while she visited the restroom.  I saw her logic but then she said, “…this way we can kill two birds with one stone…”  I thought about this for a moment and did not see how this phrase applied here.

The origin of this phrase is interesting and it means what we all thought it means, basically that you do (1) thing and accomplish (2) things.  I explained to the wife that the phrase really did not apply in this situation.  This began a discussion while we both stood in line.  I explained that we were doing (2) things (checking out and using the restroom) and accomplishing (2) things.  If anything we were killing two birds with two stones simultaneously (a phrase that I may use later) but we certainly were not killing two birds with one stone.  She disagreed.  I then explained that for her to be correct there either…

1. Had to be a toilet in the check out line that we were in currently
2. Had to be a check out lane in the stall in the ladies room

These are the two ways that she could be right.  I confirmed there were no toilets in the check out lane and I assumed that there were no check out lanes in the ladies restrooms, therefore the phrase did not apply.  We paid for the batteries and then she visited the restroom and then we were on our way even though in her heart I think she still thought she was right.

Now, writing this blog (to get back into the spirit of blogging) and poking fun at my wife (which I never take a break at), THIS is killing two birds with one stone!

Jon