Our new guard dog

We just got back from a long trip (more on that in the next post) and upon our return, what did we find living in a huge web alongside our house? This:

(click for a bigger picture)

According to an entomology site I found, this is a yellow garden spider. The site says they "can reach a length of one inch or more".... Yeah. This one's body is at least 2.5 inches long. No kidding. She's HUGE. And now that I know she can't kill me, I like her. :)