Just a bit better than gettin' the stink eye...

Daycare's a scary petri dish, especially in the winter months. Maya's most recent extraction from the mix - pink eye. It started out looking like something flu-ish. Then her eyes got mucked up starting yesterday. Kid needs a steam room. But she's doing aiight. We get to hang and catch up, while I wait for my own infection to arrive. Speaking of which, two personal ratings need a small drumroll with just a little snare.

"Pan's Labyrinth" is fabulous. My rating is a solid A. The cast is flawless and the magic realism is like one of those trips into the crazed suite at the end of the hallway in your college freshman dorm where you knew you'd see most everything. Some may cringe often in the "Labyrinth". There are heaps and heaps of gruesome scenes. Nonetheless, I believe even many of the grossed-out will watch this movie for years and continue to find new details in the mix. Go. You'll enjoy it, I promise.

In the burgeoning field of Iraq War journalistic bombshells, The Walter Reed Hospital scandal and the general malaise in the VA System that simply MUST be headed toward pending scandal is compelling. But I believe that Bob Woodruff's ABC docu-newsie-trip back to Iraq plus his David Letterman appearance was the biggest gutcheck in the most recent "surge" of media insight. Woodruff will become only more impressive as time goes by. Good luck sure didn't hurt. Most importantly, the money to get everything repaired. Still, I give Bob Woodruff's return to the stage another solid A.

Before Maya got to fullblown ickiness, I got to play Seattle tour guide with a college roommate and his wife here for a conference from Madison. If you had any sort of damage to your property or collective soul this weekend - blame it on this rollicking conference full of drunken radiology folks. We did some of what I was sure had been outlawed - the big throwdowns sponsored by drug companies. Like a six-hour open bar at a Coyote Ugly-like jazz bar ("88 Keys" in Pioneer Square deserves in the best of circumstances a snarky C-minus). And a top o' the Space Needle party. Luckily, I could also corral this friend, Mike, to visit a few dives and drive all over the damn place in the afternoons. Our only failure was my inability to re-find the original Soundgarden out in Magnuson Park. You'd think I'd know my own damn park, ya know. Regardless, it was great to see them and to get yet another chance to show off what the City means to me.

Hope your own tours take you both off and on the beaten path, with footwear to match. Rock on.