diff --git a/novaclient/openstack/common/gettextutils.py b/novaclient/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
index 210d2bd1e..01a4ce59a 100644
--- a/novaclient/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
+++ b/novaclient/openstack/common/gettextutils.py
@@ -26,10 +26,13 @@ Usual usage in an openstack.common module:
 
 import copy
 import gettext
-import logging.handlers
+import logging
 import os
 import re
-import UserString
+try:
+    import UserString as _userString
+except ImportError:
+    import collections as _userString
 
 from babel import localedata
 import six
@@ -37,11 +40,27 @@ import six
 _localedir = os.environ.get('novaclient'.upper() + '_LOCALEDIR')
 _t = gettext.translation('novaclient', localedir=_localedir, fallback=True)
 
-_AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES = []
+_AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES = {}
+USE_LAZY = False
+
+
+def enable_lazy():
+    """Convenience function for configuring _() to use lazy gettext
+
+    Call this at the start of execution to enable the gettextutils._
+    function to use lazy gettext functionality. This is useful if
+    your project is importing _ directly instead of using the
+    gettextutils.install() way of importing the _ function.
+    """
+    global USE_LAZY
+    USE_LAZY = True
 
 
 def _(msg):
-    return _t.ugettext(msg)
+    if USE_LAZY:
+        return Message(msg, 'novaclient')
+    else:
+        return _t.ugettext(msg)
 
 
 def install(domain, lazy=False):
@@ -95,7 +114,7 @@ def install(domain, lazy=False):
                         unicode=True)
 
 
-class Message(UserString.UserString, object):
+class Message(_userString.UserString, object):
     """Class used to encapsulate translatable messages."""
     def __init__(self, msg, domain):
         # _msg is the gettext msgid and should never change
@@ -236,7 +255,7 @@ class Message(UserString.UserString, object):
         if name in ops:
             return getattr(self.data, name)
         else:
-            return UserString.UserString.__getattribute__(self, name)
+            return _userString.UserString.__getattribute__(self, name)
 
 
 def get_available_languages(domain):
@@ -244,8 +263,8 @@ def get_available_languages(domain):
 
     :param domain: the domain to get languages for
     """
-    if _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES:
-        return _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES
+    if domain in _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES:
+        return copy.copy(_AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES[domain])
 
     localedir = '%s_LOCALEDIR' % domain.upper()
     find = lambda x: gettext.find(domain,
@@ -254,7 +273,7 @@ def get_available_languages(domain):
 
     # NOTE(mrodden): en_US should always be available (and first in case
     # order matters) since our in-line message strings are en_US
-    _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES.append('en_US')
+    language_list = ['en_US']
     # NOTE(luisg): Babel <1.0 used a function called list(), which was
     # renamed to locale_identifiers() in >=1.0, the requirements master list
     # requires >=0.9.6, uncapped, so defensively work with both. We can remove
@@ -264,13 +283,14 @@ def get_available_languages(domain):
     locale_identifiers = list_identifiers()
     for i in locale_identifiers:
         if find(i) is not None:
-            _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES.append(i)
-    return _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES
+            language_list.append(i)
+    _AVAILABLE_LANGUAGES[domain] = language_list
+    return copy.copy(language_list)
 
 
 def get_localized_message(message, user_locale):
     """Gets a localized version of the given message in the given locale."""
-    if (isinstance(message, Message)):
+    if isinstance(message, Message):
         if user_locale:
             message.locale = user_locale
         return unicode(message)
diff --git a/novaclient/openstack/common/py3kcompat/urlutils.py b/novaclient/openstack/common/py3kcompat/urlutils.py
index 447102170..04b3418da 100644
--- a/novaclient/openstack/common/py3kcompat/urlutils.py
+++ b/novaclient/openstack/common/py3kcompat/urlutils.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 #
 
 """
-Python2/Python3 compatibility layer for openstack
+Python2/Python3 compatibility layer for OpenStack
 """
 
 import six
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ if six.PY3:
     import urllib.parse
 
     urlencode = urllib.parse.urlencode
+    urljoin = urllib.parse.urljoin
     quote = urllib.parse.quote
     parse_qsl = urllib.parse.parse_qsl
     urlparse = urllib.parse.urlparse
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ else:
 
     parse = urlparse
     parse_qsl = parse.parse_qsl
+    urljoin = parse.urljoin
     urlparse = parse.urlparse
     urlsplit = parse.urlsplit
     urlunsplit = parse.urlunsplit
diff --git a/novaclient/openstack/common/timeutils.py b/novaclient/openstack/common/timeutils.py
index aa9f70807..60f02bcb9 100644
--- a/novaclient/openstack/common/timeutils.py
+++ b/novaclient/openstack/common/timeutils.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ Time related utilities and helper functions.
 
 import calendar
 import datetime
+import time
 
 import iso8601
 import six
@@ -90,6 +91,11 @@ def is_newer_than(after, seconds):
 
 def utcnow_ts():
     """Timestamp version of our utcnow function."""
+    if utcnow.override_time is None:
+        # NOTE(kgriffs): This is several times faster
+        # than going through calendar.timegm(...)
+        return int(time.time())
+
     return calendar.timegm(utcnow().timetuple())