OK, so our new friend outside is a Brown House Spider.  She is a little smaller than a full grown one, but not a Brown Recluse or anything like that.  She starts spinning her web around 9pm or so, and runs from the tree to the garage (about 12 feet), and down to the bushes, and sits there all night.  By morning, the web is always gone.

I keep wondering if we have a peeping tom in our neighborhood that keeps walking into the web sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

Serves him right.