Forget your gloves. The best way to beat the cold is group denial, which we found on the deck of NV Rooftop Lounge in River North last night. The Chicago Association of Realtors Commercial Forum held a mixer, and we snapped RNRealty's Noah O'Neill,  Stone Real Estate's Megan Covert, and Zifkin Realty's Tyler Quast. Tyler's working on leasing 2.6M SF of real estate, including prime spaces in River North and Andersonville. Noah is looking to buy distressed debt and REOs.

Second Systems Inc.'s Oscar Moncau joined SomerCor504 Inc.'s Gabe Beukinga and Mac Dobson for a drink. The SomerCor guys are working on financing recent Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard's new West Loop restaurant space.

Astek's Tom Lynch and Andy Swindler  just wanted to let you know they started a new website (www.webany.net) and they think it's AWESOME! They're also offering technology and internet training courses for companies.