NOT THE VACATION  in Paris and Arles (“great bread, great cheese, great wine”).
   Not her reunion on that trip with Paula Laird, the Lincoln High schoolmate who married a Kiwi and lives near Auckland.
   Not the pain and pleasure of J.P. Uhlrich's superb remodeling project that transformed her downstairs suite on Arlington Street.
   Not even her hearty farewell to Visa Corp. and the uncertainties of life without a steady job.
   No, for Pauline Scholten the defining moment of the year came when, with a dramatic grab, she ripped off her watchcap and revealed (sharp intake of breath) a head of closely shorn gray hair.
    The hair will return, she said, but not the dye.
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PAULINE and Rita Moran don't regret their decisions to walk away last year from their high-paying, high-tech, high-stress jobs (Pauline with Visa, Rita with Oracle). But their time seems just as filled up.
  Pauline helped J.P. with the downstairs renovation project and looks after her family's real estate interests. She  visits her increasingly frail mother and does what she can in aiding her uncle, Tom Scholten, who needs help in getting around.
  Rita, writing another novel in her spare time, now works for City College as a low-paid but happy ESL teacher (at left, she prepares salad at our camp on Kaua'i). She spent many months last year on trips to Saratoga to help her sisters care for her mother, Helen, who died in March  (see Notes from Paul).
   In the meantime, Rita began collecting paintings from Central America, folk art that turns her parlor into a gallery of bright color.
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RITA and Pauline's stalwart son, Paul Moran, is a sophomore at Lick-Wilmerding High School and a source of great pride to his co-moms and his father.
  In a tradition that goes back to the school's origins (when it was free), every student is required to learn a useful trade or skill. Paul passed up carpentry and welding in order to make a robot (he's working with applied electronics).
   He is otherwise excelling in his academic classes, playing trumpet in the school band, strumming his guitar with the Flapjacks and finding time in 2007 to go camping on the beach in Kaua’i with his donor dad, Lynn, and his family.  (At right, he goes head to head with an unshorn Pauline.)
   The year for Paul was also a celebration of his growing skill with the epee. Having qualified in the California tournament, he competed last year in the fencing nationals in Atlanta. He also competed this year in the nationals in San Jose.
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PAULINE'S mom, Marion, is recovering at her West Portal home from a mild stroke. Pauline's nephew, Henry Scholten, remains at the California Hospital in Atascadero, awaiting psychologist's opinions on the mental disturbances that led him to torch law offices in vintage buildings in Healdsburg.
  Her other brother, Joe, is still working in airport security, making sure that passengers resemble their passport photos.
   For Pauline, now silver-haired, that could be a problem.