hot air soldering help

[Steve Chamberlin]

I got my hot air soldering station today from Sparkfun:
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10706. But then I realized I don't
actually know how to do hot air soldering! There seems to be a
surprising shortage of good tutorials on the web. Could anyone who's
done this before help me out?

Do I really need solder paste, or can I just tin the pads with solder
and flux? Since I'm only doing a single part, I'd rather not bother
with making a stencil. I'd also rather not use paste at all, since it
has to be kept refrigerated, and I don't want to put it in my kitchen
refrigerator with my dinner. I also don't know where you safely
dispose of a used solder paste syringe.

Do I just point the nozzle at the part and go, or is it more than
that? I've read about pre-heating the board with some other kind of
heater, like a hot plate, and trying to follow a specific thermal
profile for heating and cooling. It all sounds like a pain in the
butt.

Anyone have some tips they can share?