>>> import itertools
>>> h = '00233a990c21'
>>> ':'.join(a+b for a, b in (itertools.izip(
... itertools.compress(h, itertools.cycle((1,0))),
... itertools.compress(h, itertools.cycle((0,1))))))
>>> '00:23:3a:99:0c:21'
Does that win for the highest density of parentheses?