Tonight we were reminded once again that cooking in a small apartment, with birds in a kitchen, is very tricky business. We buy chopped garlic in big jars, and this time we happened to pick up a jar where the garlic is stored in oil, not water. What's the difference, right? But you shouldn't feed garlic to birds, and apparently something about cooking garlic that's been stored in oil makes the harmful parts of it airborne. Or something. If you're a chemist feel free to send me the proper terminology (FinsterGirl @ thefinsters.com).

Frank spent about ten minutes as far away from the stove as he could get, beak open for part of that time, almost perfectly still.

Windows open, door open, fan circulating air, he seems recovered now, but we're still worried. And we'll never cook with garlic stored in oil again. Anybody need a (barely) used jar of garlic?