I actually did a few things (about 20 minutes worth of stuff) last night after hearing your times were so much different and now it is loading in less than a minute and simming/saving more quickly as well. I guess I just got to the point where I was assuming it took that long to load until you all told me otherwise. And no more Not Responding freezes, knock on wood.
But thanks Markus for the input about 10% faster simming. Believe it or not, it adds up, because how often do you do something else while simming a week, forget that it's done simming and then come back to it a few minutes later than you otherwise would have. Now you never have to walk away. Not even for a crying kid.