Last night was funny — we’d talked about going camping for my birthday, but I’d decided against it, because it would be a lot of effort, the kids might be cranky, it’s kind of hot right now, I was worried about losing momentum on novel revisions, etc. and so on.
But then I came in from working in the shed around 5 p.m., decided to grab some burgers from the freezer and pull them out to thaw, maybe do them over the fire. Camping lite. I ran into Kevin in the kitchen, showed him the burgers, and he said, “Oh, you got my text?”
I had not noticed his text, which said, “Do you want to do a fire tonight? We have corn, hot dogs, and I can thaw some burgers.” Great minds, Kevin. That’s what we’ve got here.
A little like camping at home. And Kevin did a really good job with the corn — he slathered it in salt and butter, wrapped it in foil, and when we peeled off the foil after grilling, it was v. yummy, without needing to mess with butter and a knife in the backyard. I think we’ll be making it this way from now on.
Another silly innovation — we have a lightweight fan, and if we bring it out to the fire and plug it in to the garage, we can direct the smoke away from the seating area. The kids (who complain a lot about smoke in their eyes) were very pleased. Tech for the win, I guess. 
