performance profiling

[cmatKhan]

add a log handler and log statements for performance profiling. This should be configured such that it can either go to sys.error, a file, or to AWS CloudWatch

[cmatKhan]

Use the performance logger in pull request #268 to actually put a number to different processes. I'd like a prioritized list of things that take a long time, and I'd like to be able to use the logger before/after changes to measure improvement