FYI, the techspray wick works much better than the original radio shack wick did. Gone are the problems I had with the solder not wanting to flow onto the wick. It soaks it up like a sponge. No need to switch out the tip on my soldering iron either; the fine tip is working great.
As far as the amount of paste, I agree with winston. My experiments have shown that a little bit of paste can go a long way.
My next project is going to be soldering down a QFN package. Any tips for how to do that? My plan was to pre-apply the paste to each pad and then set the QFN down on top. However, my practice with other devices (QFPs) has not shown me to have the greatest aptitude for setting a package down aligned properly the first time, and I usually have to use a pick to prod devices into correct alignment. Is that going to get me into trouble with solder bridging on the QFN? Or are leadless devices more resistant to solder bridging?