Turning up the heat

According to this CNN news article, astronaut Joe Tanner dropped a bolt and spring in space during a space walk. These things happen, I guess. But further down the article I came across this statement:

However, spacewalkers have a long history of losing material in space. In July, Discovery spacewalkers lost a 14-inch-long spatula that floated away.

I was a couple of sentences on from that before I suddenly realized what I'd just read. They lost a spatula in space.

What, exactly, was someone doing with a spatula on a space-walk? The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that the astronauts were doing what comes naturally to Guys wherever they are: Barbecue. What more reason would they need?