Every year the Astros say next year, will its next year, and the Astros and the fans are ready. This year the Astros look ready to fight for it all. What will really happen this year Injuries can be a key factor for them this year. Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio will have to step up to the challenge and have great years. Bagwell is still putting up the power numbers as he hit 39 homers and batted in 100 RBIs last season, but the BA has slipped down to .278. As for Biggio, hes a fighter. Biggio led the league last season with 27 HBPhit by pitch.
Look for Brad Ausmus to turn around last seasons horrible hitting.229 BA and have a good season at the plate, and behind the plate this season. Jason Lane, Orlando Palmeiro, and Jose Vizciano will the the best trio off the bench in the National League this season. Berkman, Hildago, Kent and Ensberg will have great all-around seasons. Adam Everett will struggle but find his way this season. The bats will be very exciting, runs will be plentiful.
The astros will have two 20 game winners this year and could end up with the best staff in the league. Oswalt, Pettite, Clemens, Miller and Tim Redding will be the rotation for the Stros this season. Oswalt, if he can stay injury free is one of the top pitchers in the game and Andy Pettite won 21 games last season. Clemens is a future hall-of-famer and could put up 15+ wins. The relief pitching could struggle at first but will get there act together in time to make a run for the playoffs. Octavio Dotel will take over the closing role with Billy Wagner in Philly now. Dotel was one of the premier set-up men last season and he has to turn into one of the premier closers this season.
In all, fans should get there tickets early and often. The 2004 Houston Astros will fight for a World Series birth. I think the Astros will end up with 95 wins. The Astros will be in the World Series against the New York Yankees, and game seven will be a game for the ages. This is the year that every fan can be proud to say "The Astros are my team".

About The Author
Garret Tupa Jr. wrote this article for http://www.sportznow.com

Many people, like yourself, are either victims of or know people who are victims of diabetes. I myself have been diagnosed as Pre-Diabetic, so I have a chance to reverse things if I modify my behavior.
The Cost of Diabetes
"In a recent speech the United States Centers For Disease Control reported that studies show a third of the people born in the USA in the year 2000 will develop diabetes. The projected lifetime risk is about three times higher than the American Diabetes Associations current estimate.
The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion, or one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in America. Consider that a three-fold increase in diabetes patients would severely tax the already overburdened health care system and could create real economic disaster.
Two in three people with diabetes will develop heart disease, while others will go blind, get kidney failure, and require amputations. Diabetes is the fifth-leading cause of death by disease in the U.S.
A man diagnosed with diabetes at age 40 will die 12 years sooner than he would have had he not developed the disease, while a woman diagnosed at that age will have 14 years shaved off her lifespan."
--Dr. Alan Tomlinson
So now you see how important it is to get this disease in check.
Anyone with diabetes, or pre-diabeties should eat sensibly, lower their sugar intake, get plenty of exercise and proper nutrition.
So what does the diabetic need to include in their diet to help them take control
A Multi-Vitamin Complex
Studies have shown that taking a multi-vitamin can increase the overall health prospects of diabetics.
Chromium
Chromium stimulates the insulin receptors on the cells allowing the glucose to be used by the cells. The most beneficial form of chromium GTF Glucose Tolerance Factor.
Vanadium and Molybdenum
These important minerals also assist in the metabolism of sugars. Although they are needed in smaller amounts they are just as critical to the process.
Calcium, Potassium and Magnesium
The electrolyte minerals are essential to many of the biochemical processes that go on every day allowing our bodies to heal and grow stronger. Many of these processes affect the hormonal and immune systems. Proper functioning of these systems is key to a diabetics health.
The diabetes epidemic in this country has not been stopped. The prospects are devastating, but there is hope. Lifestyle changes and proper nutrition can halt this plague.
Part 2 will discuss Chromium and its benefits to the diabetic.
Sources:
The Tomlinson Newsletter
www.yomack.com/defense A forum for diabetics and their families

About The Author

Ms. McDonald is a programmer with 14 years of professional experience. She is also a distributor of natural health products including the Diabetic Pack which has been proven in clinical studies to lower blood sugar 30% in 30 days.
www.DiabeticDefense.com
www.EnterTheFoodMatrix.com
sportron@yomack.com

Link popularity is simply the total number of web pages that link to your web page. Link popularity is an extremely important factor that is used by most of the major search engines to rank web pages and web sites. In general, the major search engines consider link popularity a key factor in their algorithms to determine the relevancy of your web page to a particular keyword search query.

Good link popularity is important because it can increase the visitor traffic to your web page. The reputation of your web site i.e., votes of confidence from other web sites is a measure of the site

We all know the expression: "If the shoe fits wear it." But for petites, the motto is more likely to go something like this: "If the petite size fits, buy it." Meaning clothing petite size has been hard to find in clothing stores and their needs are even more complicated than the ordinary run-of-the-mill sizes. However, more and more clothing companies have come to realize lately that catering to niche clothing demands, whether in terms of sizing or in any other way, can be very lucrative and offer something many women are looking for in petite clothing.
The advent of the Internet has made it all the more possible for clothing companies to carry those hard to find petite sizes for women. This is a win-win situation for the petite size women and clothing companies. This will be of interest to an ever increasing section of the population, but reach them wherever they are so that the operation becomes convenient for the consumer and cost effective for the online store.
This may sound complicated, but what it basically means is that women of smaller stature, who are looking for petite clothing, no matter what their style needs are, can now begin to take an interest in the latest fashions by visiting some great online clothing stores that cater to women whos needs are for clothes petite size. This is very heartening news for ladies who wear womens petite size and who love the idea of looking good because now it is a mouse click away!

About The Author

Bowe Packer is the webmaster and content provider for http://www.clothes-4u.com. His website: http://www.clothes-4u.com is dedicated to providing free fashion advice and tips for women. Offering excellent tips and strategies for women to look good in the areas of Casual, Petite Size, Plus Size clothing, as well as dress, athletic and casual shoes. You can reach him at: bowe@clothes-4u.com.

Our hair can be categorized in three different ways:

Healthy
Dry
Damaged

Characteristics of Healthy Hair

Smooth texture and feel
Shiny
Hair loss is 75

This article is based on the following book:
What Is The Emperor Wearing
Truth-Telling In Business Relationships
Butterworth-Heinneman
ISBN 0-7506-9872-1
217 pages
This book is inspired by the popular tale

In the wake of the incredible house price boom witnessed in most of the developed world over the past decade, a lot of ideas have sprung up as to how to value a house fairly. The reason for this is that traditional methods, such as working out house prices as a multiple of salaries, or perhaps mortgage affordability as a percentage of income, seem to have stopped working recently.
There can be no doubt that house prices are .. ahem! .. at the top end of their range compared to traditional valuation methods, but dont let anyone fool you that this is now the norm, or that a new paradigm is in place. Such talk rightly marks the climax of an asset bubble, as witness the dotcom bust as the millenium rolled over. Many things can change as technology and societies develop, but basic human nature isnt one of them, and the twin drivers of any asset bubble, fear and greed, are rather depressingly evident in this bubble too.
So if you live in an area where houses are trading at, for example, twice the historical sustainable relationship to salary, how can you tell whether this is ok or bad Easy. There is one relationship that has stood the test of time and wheathered all previous house price booms and busts - the relationship betwen the house as an asset, and the return on that asset.
What do we mean by this Any asset has a return - what you make for holding the asset. Houses traditonally return in 2 ways - by capital appreciation house price growth and by rent if you own a house, you could rent it out. As it can be difficult to create a simple equation that factors in both these elements indivdually, they are usually rolled together, to give an easy way of comparing the required sale price of a house against its true worth.
Is it complicated No. Its simple. If the price of a house is 12 times or less the annual rental income you can achieve from that house, then it is a buy. A good investment in other words. These levels were last seen in the UK almost 5 years ago, and in the US over 3 years ago. Conversely, if the price of a house is 20 times or more the annual rental income you can achieve on that house, then it is a definite sell.
As an example, say you want to buy a house priced at $100,000. You know that the house currently rents for $10,000 a year. According to the calculation, the house will be a good buy up to 12 x $10k, i.e. $120,000 , so in this case yes, it is worth buying now, as you are likely to both cover the mortgage costs with the rent, or even make a small profit on it, and also benefit from any coming capital growth.
Another example, you own a house that rents out at $20,000 a year in a swanky neighborhood. You notice that identical houses in the street are up for sale and selling! at over $500,000. Guess what - its time to sell - the house is over 20 times more expensive than the annual rent! Chances of any more capital appreciation in this market are slim, and you can actually make a far better return by simply selling the house and putting the proceeds into an interest bearing bank account. Interestingly, most amateur investors tend to hold property rather past this point, and end up unable to sell as the market tips to the downside. If the figure of annual rent to price is already way past 20, you may be too late to sell easily.
Not as complicated as it seems, is it Just remember the 12 - 20 rule, and you should be able to enter an exit the house market at the very best times.

About The Author

Mike McVey writes for www.mortgagedown.com the site for mortgage advice free!

Reading is the most important skill that a child must acquire at school, because one must learn to read to be able to read to learn. The implication of this is that the child who is a poor reader will usually also be a poor learner.
Unfortunately poor reading skills, and therefore poor learning skills, have become a reality for an alarming number of people. The $14 million National Adult Literacy Survey of 1993 found that even though most adults in this survey had finished high school, 96% of them could not read, write, and figure well enough to go to college. Even more to the point, 25% were plainly unable to read.
Even more alarming is that reading difficulties are not limited to people who are environmentally, culturally or economically disadvantaged. Many children come from good homes, go to good schools and score average to above average on IQ tests. Yet, they battle to learn to read, and many never succeed.
Children with reading difficulties share a number of common symptoms. They are inclined to reverse letters or words, to omit letters, to lose their place, to remember little of what they have read, or to read with poor comprehension. These children are considered to suffer from a learning disability LD, commonly called dyslexia.
According to the Orton Dyslexia Society at least one in every ten of otherwise able people has serious dyslexia problems. The Foundation of Children with Learning Disabilities states that learning-disabled children represent more than ten million of the total population of the U.S.A. Estimates of learning-disabled students being dyslexic vary between 70 and 80 percent.
FIND THE CAUSE TO FIND A CURE
Most problems can only be solved if one knows what causes the problem. A disease such as scurvy claimed the lives of thousands of seamen during long sea voyages. The disease was cured fairly quickly once the cause was discovered, viz. a Vitamin C deficiency. A viable point of departure in LD research would therefore be to ask the question, “What is the CAUSE of dyslexia”
The idea that dyslexia is a certifiable biological disorder, a physical problem that could be diagnosed and treated accordingly, gained credence during the 1960s and 1970s, giving rise to an armada of theories. One such a theory states that dyslexia is the result when the link between the language, hearing and comprehension centers of the brain is somehow misconfigured during fetal development. Another theory states that dyslexia is caused by “faulty wiring in the brain,” whereas another holds that a subtle impairment of vision may be responsible, while yet another believes that a cerebellar-vestibular dysfunction may be responsible for the learning disability. All these theories – most of them blaming some difference in structure between the brain of the dyslexic and that of the so-called normal reader – have lead to nothing at all. Despite all these theories and all the intervention efforts based on them, not to mention the vast amounts of money expended in the process, the numbers of dyslexics continue to escalate.
Except for the fact that proof of a neurological deficit still eludes the researchers, this theory leaves many questions unanswered. If dyslexia has a neurological basis, why is this supposedly non-contagious “ailment” on the increase Compare the present situation with, for example, that of a century ago. In 1910 the literacy rate in the U.S.A. was so high it was predicted, “the public schools will in a short time practically eliminate illiteracy.” In 1935, a survey of the 375,000 men working in the Civilian Conservation Corps – a government-sponsored work project to provide employment – found an illiteracy rate of 1.9 percent. It is most noteworthy that this last figure was found among men primarily of low socio-economic status. It is even more noteworthy that the illiteracy rates of the first half of the twentieth century reflected, for the most part, people who had never had the advantage of schooling.
It is also impossible to explain how a neurological dysfunction can be more prevalent in specific areas or countries. While the National Commission on Excellence in 1983 warned that the American nation was “at risk,” remedial reading facilities were not needed at all in Japan due to the rarity of reading problems. Some would argue that reading problems were virtually nonexistent in Japan because their written language is easier than our Latin alphabet. That, however, is simply not true. The Japanese Kanji ideograms consist of 1,850 characters. In addition there are two Kana syllabaries,

Every year, people resolve that THIS New Year will be different: "This will be the year that I write that book, start that new venture, double my income, take more time off to spend with my family," and the list goes on and on. However, when people think about pursuing their dreams, they often squash the idea because it doesnt seem practical.
Does this sound familiar You have a dream, but are afraid that if you pursue it, you would risk giving up what you already have. It is easy to put it off to a later date -- a time when there will be more money, more time and/or when the kids have graduated from college. However, there is never a time when everything in your life is perfect for carrying out your goals. Dont wait for everything to be lined up. Once you actually commit to your dream, things will begin to fall into place. Know that is possible to live out your fondest dreams AND make a great living!
After supporting thousands of people across the globe in making their personal and professional dreams a reality, I have found the following strategies to be most effective:
First, design your life around your priorities. Many people try to fit their dreams into their life and complain there are not enough hours in the day to make it happen. If you want your dream to become a reality, make it a priority. For example, Stacy Allison, the first American woman to climb Mt. Everest chose to live just outside of Zion National Park so she could climb rock cliffs in her own backyard. Climbing was her priority for many years and she made choices in alignment with that.
Second, handle the basics food, clothing and shelter then reach for fulfillment and self-actualization. If you cant stand your job any longer or have been forced out and you need a source of income, get a low-stress interim job to pay the bills while your pursue your dream.
Visualize every step of your dream and watch the magic unfold. For example, an experiment conducted by Australian Psychologist Alan Richardson found a 23 percent performance improvement among subjects who visualized every day for 20 days.
Mary Youngblood went from welfare mom to Grammy award winner. Mary visualized herself out of welfare. She did this by writing a short story about a young welfare mother. It was her story, basically, and how she was discovered having great talent and was able to get herself up and out of welfare. She pictured it happening in her head and then took action in alignment with that picture.
Laser in on one idea, business or income stream at a time. One of the mistakes people make is diversifying too quickly. This is true whether you are trying to build multiple streams of income or are just working on several different ideas at one time. The key is getting the first stream or idea up and running and having systems in place so it will keep running without you before going on to the next unrelated stream.
This is one of my biggest lessons as it is for many entrepreneurs and creative people. When I was writing, "I Cant Believe I Get Paid To Do This!," I was also looking for real estate investments, which was a new venture for me. I wasnt making much progress on either front. When I put the real estate to the side and committed to finishing the book, it happened quite easily.
And last but not least, develop your resilience muscle by bouncing back from setbacks. You will very likely have setbacks along the way. Dont get stopped by these bumps in the road; learn from them.

About The Author

Stacey Mayo is a certified career coach and author of "I Cant Believe I Get Paid To Do This! Remarkable People Reveal 26 Proven Strategies For Making Your Dreams a Reality," which shares insights into the experiences of millionaires and other remarkable people who have achieved high levels of success. For more information, log on to www.igetpaidtodothis.com.

Anyone who is closely related to an accountant knows that there are not four, but five seasons in a year: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Tax Season. During the other seasons, we accumulate leaves, snow, and mosquito bites. During Tax Season we accumulate paper. And more paper. And if you have a small business or investments--even more paper.

Whether you hire someone to prepare your taxes or attempt to decipher the forms yourself, it is imperative that your papers be in order for this fifth season. Organizing your tax-related documents is not just a project for the evening of April 13th. Good tax organization is a year-round process.

Some pitfalls of being disorganized at tax time:

You run the risk of misplacing important receipts/documents

You feel stressed from the mad dash to the tax preparer/post office on April 14th

Your tax preparer may charge you more money if they have to spend time wading through your piles of loose receipts.

How to remedy these tax-time situations Prepare now for next year by getting organized!

Set up an all-year round file system

Designate a box, accordion file, or a file cabinet for year-round paper storage and retrieval. Create folders for receipts, credit card and bank statements, anything you have spent money on or need to keep track of for tax purposes. As you acquire such documents, place them in the appropriately labeled folder. This is beneficial not only for tax time but for when you have to retrieve certain papers throughout the year.

Give your tax-related papers a home

Every January, our mailboxes become flooded with documents necessary for filing your taxes. At the beginning of the year, designate a large envelope or box in one area of your home or a file in your file cabinet for these papers. Examples of these are:

W2s

1099s

Mortgage interest statements

Bank interest statements

Real estate tax statements

Investment statements

Receipts for charitable donations

Sort and create categories for your papers/receipts

By early February you should have received all paperwork necessary to complete your taxes. Take that envelope/box/file of collected papers and sort them by category. This process will enable you or your tax preparer to quickly locate your papers and receipts. Some basic categories are:

Salary

Real Estate

Medical

Childcare

Investments

Save your tax preparer aggravation by throwing away the envelopes that your statements came in and tear off the perforated edges from your income statements. Group the documents into the categories you