A building finally gets refurbed, an old toy finally dies, and a genuine question

Here are some notes from the life of me lately and it is a good indicator of how routine and perhaps boring my life is. Don't fret though dear reader because I am perfectly happy with the routine nature of my life.

First off, we have a building that was gutted and boarded up years ago and then it just sat there with nothing happening to it for the time in between.

I've been told by people that know the "lay of the land" better than I do that walking away from a building and just leaving it vacant is extremely common in Vietnam. The owners of the land are so absurdly wealthy that it is not a priority to them to get someone in there. Instead, they have a ludicrous asking price and are completely willing to just make nothing until someone agrees to it. Well, I guess you could say that their strategy paid off even though it took a while.

There is about a 2-year time period between the times that these two pics were taken and in the middle there were signs on the never-used construction site that said "no dog urination area" so naturally, I trained Nadi to intentionally pee there. It's just such a jerk thing to do to say a dog cannot pee pee somewhere as if it was something that I have control over.

I fear for this coffee shop that is now in operation at this location. At the moment they are very busy all the time but this is not a new thing in Da Nang. There are so many coffee shops constantly opening that whatever new one pops up, they simply pull business away from what used to be new and hot and the older one goes out of business. I've seen this happen dozens of times so I hope the owners realize this because if they don't, they haven't been paying attention very well.

Bok Bok is dead

Bok Bok is Nadi's oldest toy. She got it when I got her when she was a mere 1 year old, or so the veterinarian has guessed. Nadi's birthday is completely made up and I don't really know exactly how old she is.

But Bok Bok has always been her favorite toy and is one of the only ones that she knows by name.

Yesterday when Nadi and I were in the gym doing one of my half-assed workouts, I noticed a bit of fluff on the ground. Later, when playing fetch with Bok Bok, I noticed that after years of being chewed on, Nadi has finally managed to rip her open. Obviously I can repair this and I will but it is just amazing to me that it took so long to rip this up. This is not a rugged dog toy, it is just a standard stuffed animal that your dog would probably rip to pieces in an afternoon. I kind of look at it as the really pleasant demeanor of my dog and how she plays nice with stuff. She has never been a destructive dog and that is one of the many many many many things I love about her.

Lastly, we have a genuine question from me to you that I could probably look up on the internet, but would rather ask of you.

A friend recommended putting oats in my breakfast of yogurt and fruit because when I do eat just the yogurt and fruit I feel hungry very quickly afterwards. He said if I put oats in it I will feel full longer. Now here's the question: Do I cook them first or just put them in there raw? I have no experience with oats outside of the microwave instant kind or the kind my mama would make for me when I was a youngin'.

So, what say you?

I leave you with another cute picture of Nadi because that is the only kind of picture that exists of her. If you look closely you can see a not-yet-damaged Bok Bok sitting right behind her.