A pickle of a situation

So, last week in the midst of my making pickles, I happened to have one of those 'mom moments' where you must multi-task but the results ended up less than satisfactory. I was busy heating up my syrup to make the spicy pickles (8 cups apple cider vinegar, 16 cups sugar, 1 cup very coarse pickling spices) and was waiting endlessly for this big pot to boil. So, I stirred, waited, stirred, waited and of course (the big no-no) cranked up the heat to make it happen sooner. Well, what do you know, but after about 1/2 hour of this I was getting rather bored of waiting and then suddenly Luke needed my assistance "right away" so I ran to his aid, only to come back and my big pot had boiled over. Half of the contents were everywhere. So, not only did it smell quite pungent, but that much sugar made it a very sticky situation. It spilled under 2 burners, down the vent into the bottom of the oven (which of course I had just cleaned last week), under the stove, under the fridge, in the drawer and all the pans under the stove, and all over the floor. The spices in it also made a very interesting mess to clean up as they got stuck on everything. I've washed my floor (and more) numerous times, but it still squeaks a bit when you walk around the stove and I am still getting sticky drips coming out from here and there, when I thought there could be no more places for this stuff to hide. Ahh! At least I could've turned down the burner before leaving it unattended. Hopefully this is a lesson learned. It was quite a chore that I didn't really need added to my day that day, but I have to say it wasn't quite as messy as the one time my chicken enchiladas exploded (pan and all) in the oven. Now that- was a mess!