Oh, Kathy -- looking at your pictures on Flickr, the one of Chase the dog howling to be let in is SO cute!

Ooh, all of what Steph said about the weightloss commercials and bodies and etc.

I was thinking recently, what was that mall store 15-20 years ago? 3-5-7? I don't think I could ever shop there, even when I was 15.

5-7-9

Hee! My brother's malamutes are complete doofuses, and great fun to be around. They loooove to be petted, and will make sure to get right next to you for maximum scratching. Unfortunately, they do this in tandem, so you have 150+ pounds of dog leaning into you at the same time.

My SIL is not a dog person, so they are strictly outside animals. But that doesn't stop them from trying to nose their way in when the sliding glass door to the deck is opened.

Back in high school, when I did actually weigh like 125, I was a size 10-11 Juniors. The bones, they don't compress even if the rest of me does.

Granted, high school is long enough ago that sizes have actually gotten larger, but seriously big bones here.

I was thinking recently, what was that mall store 15-20 years ago? 3-5-7?

5-7-9 Shop. I remember their jingle.

And, above all else, I get that it's a *commercial* -- their goal is to make $$$$, and if they can make women think that they, too, can be a size 2, then that's what they're going to trumpet in their commercial, even if it isn't a realistic or achievable or sustainable OR healthy goal for the majority of women.

Also, the size mentioned in the commercial needs to be smaller than the vast majority of viewers in order to get people thinking "Wow, I'd better lose weight!" instead of "Yay, the teevee thinks I'm thin!"

I have the wee bones, which is why I think my sister looks so damned skinny at something just shy of my pre-kettlebell weight. She's got the big bones.

Okay, so damned skinny is an exaggeration--it's lean, and it's quite an athletic looking lean, but it's weird to think that at about that height and weight I merely looked slim.

Now, as far as I can tell, I look...okay, I have no idea.

Oooh, 5-7-9. Mall stores are ridic. Every time I pass American Apparel stores I think of the store "Units"-- does anyone else remember this? It was all knit coordinates, like knit jumpsuits with knit belts.

What I want to know is why the Jenny Craig/LA Weight Loss Center/Weight Watchers in strip malls are always located next to the Cold Stone Creamery/Ben & Jerry's?