Hawking on Origin of Universe

I've just finished watching a webcast of a talk given by Stephen Hawking yesterday at Berkeley, on the origins of the universe. Since the question as to why there is something here rather than nothing is one that drives me batty, I thought it would be interesting to see if Hawking had anything new to offer. From the Daily Cal:

“If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was, what happened before the beginning,” Hawking said. “What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing hell for people who asked such questions?” According to Hawking, the origin of the universe can be depicted as bubbles in a steam in boiling water. Small bubbles that appear and then collapse represent mini universes that expand only to disintegrate.

A few “bubbles,” Hawking said, will grow to a certain size until they are safe from collapse, and will begin to develop galaxies, stars and eventually human life. “The universe began with accelerating expansion which we call inflation, because the universe grows in the way prices go up in some countries,” Hawking said. “It expanded in a million trillion trillionths of a second.”

And so, if the universe is like a bubble in steaming water, what the heck is the water, where is the stove and are they cooking with gas? Maybe it's a stupid question, but as soon as they wrap up explaining one level of the universe, are there more levels which we don't yet have any clues about? Is there a kind of meta-time and super-space?? Not only is the universe absurd, but it also makes my brain hurt. At least we can be certain, everything is pointless!