Multitasking gone horribly wrong

I am a multitasker. Being a bit ADHD (self-diagnosed, mind you), I have the inability to focus on one single task. I get started on one thing, then end up getting sidetracked by another. Short attention span at its finest. My solution? I do multiple things at the same time. 

This morning, however, my multitasking skills failed me.

As I mentioned before, our helper left our employ. Plus, my Mom went to Manila to be with my Uncle J who underwent angioplasty (it was successful, btw). So it's just me and my Dad. Which means most of the housework falls on my capable (is it, though?) hands.

This morning Dad asked me to give our dogs a bath. I bathe my dogs (I have 5) once a week, but I've been neglecting them since our helper left because I've been a) busy, b) tired, c) both.

I woke up at 7, but I went back to bed. I have the luxury of sleeping in until 9 or so, because I'm usually up till 2 or 3 in the morning finishing the odd jobs I've got going online (I'm making cookbooks now). So I got up around 10, procrastinated a bit, and got started on the dogs.

I started with Rusty. After I bathed and dried him, I went to get the pugs. Then I decided I better clean their play pen first, so that it'll be clean when I put them back in after their bath. By the time I finished cleaning it was already 11:15. I wasn't in a rush, though, because Dad saw how busy I was and suggested that we get takeout instead, so I don't have to cook lunch. Then, I gave Bruno a bath.

Around 11:45, Dad left to get our order, and I realized that we don't have rice yet. So I took out last night's leftover rice and heated it over the stove. While I have that going, I took Basha and gave her a bath. And totally forgot about the rice I was heating.

Basha was giving me a hard time, so I keep talking to her (yes, I talk to my dogs) to distract her. Until I got a whiff of something burning, which made me rush to the kitchen to turn off the stove.

But I was too late. 

We had to endure eating rice that smelled like charred wood. Dad was laughing the whole time.

20+ years of cooking and multitasking, and this is the first time this happened to me. Lesson learned, though. Never give a dog a bath while on kitchen duty. 😅