Really, seriously.... who cares...?? I might have drawn an adverse inference to this entire thread, but by your own words it was catty, therefore it was not meant to be a compliment....
My stepmum used to always say to me, "people who fish for compliments almost always catch a FISH". Use your common sense, you're a big girl, if the tone was awful it was never meant to be nice. How you respond to that is entirely up to you. If the tone was nice then it was meant as a compliment. The whole thread is entirely redundant to me.