Why does Outlook keep "preparing [iCloud] calendar for first use"?

Hello all --

I just installed iCloud on my Windows 7 laptop and configured it to integrate with Exchange. The functionality seems to work but there are two very annoying behaviours that I hope someone can help me with:

1. Every time I switch to the calendar view I get a little bubble in the taskbar saying "preparing calendar for first use". This ends up freezing Outlook for about 45- 60 seconds -- long enough for the Outlook window to have a "(not responding)" added to the title bar. This freeze-out is massively disruptive. It seems like Outlook is re-preparing the new iCloud calendars every time. Is this normal? Is there a configuration setting I could look at for this?
   
2. The iCloud calendars are always checked when I start up. Is there any way to uncheck them? Solving this might solve #1 above

Any suggestions on how to resolve and/or debug these further?

Thanks!

Ramon