...very much for the ID. She was very cooperative, once contained. She was inside my house trying to get out through a window glass. Not knowing what she was, I cupped her in my hand briefly whilst transferring her to a container for photo-taking and she exacted her revenge by stinging me several times. She seemed to be none the worse for wear for doing it. (In case anyone doesn't already know this and is curious--the stings weren't bad at all, causing only very mild pain which went away within minutes. Could they have been bites, instead?)

This is Auplopus mellipes, no doubt. the silvery-grey body and orange legs are quite distinctive. They are among the few pompilids that construct mud nests instead of digging burrows. I'm sure she stung you rather than bit you, but the venom is designed to paralyze spiders, not send a human into la-la land:-)

I appreciate the additional info. I was comparing her stings to my memory of paper wasp stings, the only other wasp stings I've had, and they are certainly more memorable! One final question, if I may--how can you tell this is a female? The antennae?