up in flames

House/dog sitting for a friend for the week. As much as I consider myself to be a fairly social person, I can't deny the appeal of living alone - self dinner dates, White Collar marathons, and various fashion magazines strewn about the makeshift coffee table are definitely something I could get used to. Having my very own place is on my list of things to achieve, but somehow my sister keeps including herself in my plans to move out.

The mountains above the Tooele valley caught fire earlier this week, when a stray bolt of lightening struck somewhere in the dry brush about halfway up the mountain, straight out from my office window. The above is what it looked like from my work parking lot when I arrived Thursday morning.

And this is what it had spread to by the time I left Thursday evening. It was nearly out Friday morning, but the winds kicked up again and it had spread even further by 5pm that night. Those winds, however, brought in a pretty intense summer rainstorm that I'm (desperately) hoping drowned the wildfire rather effectively. I haven't been to Tooele since the storm started Friday evening (the house I'm sitting is in Salt Lake City), so I can't personally attest to it's status. The most recent update I've found, from Saturday night, said the fire has burned 370 acres and is at 30% containment.

It seems the entire state has gone up in flames this summer; over 600 wildland fires have been reported so far this year, and twelve are currently active and burning around the state. The majority of those (473 to be exact) were human caused, but most of the ones currently destroying Utah were caused by lightning. (All information from this KSL article)

Wildfires and puppy terds aside, there is some pretty exciting stuff in the works round these parts - the most exciting being The Council of Utah Style Bloggers that Rebecca of Rebecca (hearts)... and I are organizing. It's a working name, granted; for now, we're keeping things pretty informal, and we're planning a group coffee date for Saturday, July 28th. I'll make the official announcement as soon as we have a firm time and location, so check back around mid-week if you're local to Utah and want to meet some kindred spirits.

In the meantime, leave a comment here or drop me an email if you're interested in being a part of our group - any Utah style, fashion, beauty and lifestyle bloggers are welcome to join us!