Carving pumpkins before guests arrive

Dinner at Marsha's with pesto cheese tortellini, fresh bread, lots of melon, homemade muffins for desert, water. A few beers later.

Josh and I live at my parents' house, but it's ours. It's halloween and I've stayed in my pajamas all day. We need to get some pumpkins carved, and Josh is across the street at the Major's, working on some. I go and get one cleaned out, but I forgot the knife and marker, so I go back across the street. Some friends of Eric's are coming to stay with us for some reason, and we're not really ready. I grab a boning knife, but then decide to bring our nice one, too. And a marker. Where's the marker? I'm all over the place, a mess and wasting time. Then the alarm won't set, or it's making a weird noise. Has a message about smoke on the screen. What the? It's seeming broken.

It's getting dark by now. I go out the front door and there's this group of old people trumping across the yard and back along the side of the house. What the hell? I stroll up behind them, ready for trouble. They have a 4' step ladder and they're climbing over the wrought iron gate. I interrupt them, but they turn out (and into) be Eric's friends. I can't quite place who they are, but their faces are pretty familiar. They keep using the ladder and tossing themselves over the gate roughly. I mock them and simply open the gate; it is, after all, unlocked.