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Kim Mance is a journalist, writer and blogger for publications like Condé Nast Traveler, and Marie Claire. She co-hosted Travel Channel’s Destination Showdown, and hosts Dream it. Book it. Do it! for Comcast on-demand.

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Bio in a Box

I'm editor-in-chief of Galavanting, an online women's travel magazine. I'm also a freelance writer on topics from politics, to parenting, to freethought. 

Oh, and I've got five great kids; three of my own, and two who came with the love of my life.

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Monday
Feb112013

I sold candybars to actor George Kennedy

George Kennedy from Airplane!, Dallas and Naked Gun 2 1/2 fame (among lesser-known films) bought chocolate bars from my sister and me. In the 1990s.Yep, I sold my track team's candy bars to actor George Kennedy alongside my little sister.

You don't know him until you seem him, he's the guy who made a serious (failed) movie...then spoofed himself years later. That's cool in my book. (As well as a bunch of other popular stuff.)

My sister and I were -- unbeknown to us at the time -- temporarily living in a fancy neighborhood in the Channel Islands Harbor area of Oxnard, California. Looking back as an adult ... my dad's pretty sweet boat on the dock behind our house should've tipped us off that we weren't living in a normal situation.

But he was our track team coach. And one hell of a crazy-ass coach. In life and track.

Plus, I was from Colorado and my little 'sis was from Texas (we moved a lot.). So we had a motherlode of candy bars to sell to prove our worth to the current team.

So onward we went.

Three blocks and five doors away, a beautiful blonde woman opened the door and just blindly handed us money. I noticed there was a fairly large tree planted in the foyer behind her and thought it was cool. But she

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Wednesday
Feb062013

Federal Crimes of Investigation Office - scam phone call

Funny story. Just as I was leaving to meet a friend for lunch today I got a call from a number I didn't recognize in Washington state - 206-259-6363. A man with an Indian accent told me he was an officer from the Federal Crimes of Investigation Office and that I needed to give him all my personal information to verify my identity.

"I'm sorry, the federal what?" I asked

"The Federal Crimes of Investigation Office," he repeated, "And this is very serious, so you need to give me all of your information immediately or be arrested in the next 24 hours."

"Um, no."

"Ma'am, don't make this worse. I already have your social security number, xxx-xx-xxxx." (Which was actually my social security number.)

"Actually, you give me all your personal information and I will call back to verify you are who you say you are," I irritably demanded back."What is your badge number?"

"My badge number is 72."

"Your badge number is seventy-two?! Oh really. And what is your name?"

"My name is Officer Sam Smith. The Federal Crimes of Investigation Office is a division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"OK, Officer Sam Smith with badge number 72, I'll get back to you after I've had a word with the FBI."

I hung up on him. Then I dialed back the area code 206 number he called me from thinking it would be a

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